Cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44), a marker for cancer stem cells, has been reported to be associated with poor prognosis in non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but its involvement in tumor growth has not fully been elucidated. The present study explored the associations between CD44 expression and clinicopathological features using immunohistochemistry in 94 NSCLC cases, as well as proliferation in cells with aberrant expression of this protein. Overexpression of CD44 was achieved by transfecting H1299 cells with CD44 expression vectors, and inhibition of CD44 expression was performed by transfecting small interfering RNAs into A549 cells. Cell proliferation was measured using Cell Counting Kit‑8 assays and flat plate colony formation assay was performed to confirm the cellular anchorage growth in vitro. In total, 64 (68.1%) of the 94 NSCLC cases stained positive for CD44 expression. High expression of CD44 was associated with advanced T stage in NSCLC. Overexpression of CD44 in H1299 cells promoted cell proliferation and colony formation in vitro. Meanwhile, knockdown of CD44 expression in A549 cells suppressed cell proliferation and colony formation in vitro. High expression of CD44 may promote NSCLC progression by increasing cancer cell proliferation; therefore, it may serve as a potential biomarker for diagnosis or target therapy.

One of the major challenges in soft tissue sarcomas is to identify factors that predict metastasis. AZGP1 is a potential biomarker of cancer progression, but its value in soft tissue sarcomas remains unknown. The aim of this study is to determine the expression level of AZGP1 in soft tissue sarcomas, and to analyze its influence on tumor progression. AZGP1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and RT-PCR were performed in 86 patients with soft tissue sarcomas. The relationships between AZGP1 levels and clinicopathologic features were analyzed. In vitro experiments were performed using fibrosarcoma (HT1080), rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) and synovial sarcoma (SW982) cell lines to corroborate our findings. We used lentiviral over-expression and knockdown assays to examine how changes of AZGP1 expressions might affect cellular migration and invasion. The quantitative RT-PCR results showed that AZGP1 expression was negatively correlated with metastasis and overall survival in soft tissue sarcomas (p < 0.05). Immunohistochemical staining showed lower expression of AZGP1 in patients with metastasis than in those without. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with low expression of AZGP1 had shorter overall (p = 0.056) and metastasis-free survivals (p = 0.038). These findings were corroborated by our in vitro experiments. Over-expression of AZGP1 significantly decreased RD cellular migration and invasion by 64% and 78%, respectively. HT1080 cells migration was inhibited by 2-fold, whereas their invasion was repressed by 7-fold after AZGP1 knockdown. Our study reveals that reduced AZGP1 expression correlates with in vitro cellular migration and invasion. In vivo, it is associated with higher metastatic risk and shorter survival in patients with soft tissue sarcomas.