{"entity":{"id":"cd44","kind":"target","name":"CD44","aka":["CD44 molecule (IN blood group)","CD44 antigen","MC56","Pgp1","PGP-1","CD44R","HCELL","CSPG8","Hermes-1","CDw44","HUTCH-1","HUTCH-I","ECM-III","H-CAM","MIC4","MDU2","MDU3"],"tldr":"CD44 (CD44 antigen) is a gene. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, Ovarian cancer, Colorectal cancer and 5 more.","summary":"Cell-surface receptor that plays a role in cell-cell interactions, cell adhesion and migration, helping them to sense and respond to changes in the tissue microenvironment. Participates thereby in a wide variety of cellular functions including the activation, recirculation and homing of T-lymphocytes, haematopoiesis, inflammation and response to bacterial infection. Engages, through its ectodomain, extracellular matrix components such as hyaluronan/HA, collagen, growth factors, cytokines or proteases and serves as a platform for signal transduction by assembling, via its cytoplasmic domain, protein complexes containing receptor kinases and membrane proteases.\n\nCIViC holds 17 clinical evidence items and 1 assertion across 9 variants, naming Cisplatin, RG7356 and Docetaxel.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:1681","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:1681"},{"label":"UniProt P16070","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P16070/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 960","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/960"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000026508","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000026508"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic"],"cancers":["gastric","ovarian","colorectal","head-and-neck","prostate","urothelial","cervical","hcc"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":["intravasation-ctc-survival","proteoglycans-in-cancer"],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC lists 3 therapies; CIViC holds 17 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier \"clinical-evidence\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.","Diseases the sources name that have no OnCo cancer page yet, so they are not linked: Pancreatic Carcinoma; Squamous Cell Carcinoma."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"CD44","role":["drug-target","biomarker"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:1681","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:1681","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt P16070","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P16070/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene CD44","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/855","note":"17 evidence items, 1 assertions, 9 variants; diseases: Stomach Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Cancer, Melanoma, Colorectal Cancer and 7 more (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"distribution":"many-types","specificityNote":"Specificity not established: no corpus medicine is aimed at it and the catalogues give it only the roles drug-target, biomarker; HPA finds the RNA tissue enhanced, which says where the protein sits but not whether the tumour differs from normal tissue. HPA CD44: RNA tissue enhanced (salivary gland 470 nTPM); high antibody staining in 20 normal tissues; highest cancer staining head and neck cancer (3 of 3 high). Distribution: 8 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer, Ovarian cancer, Colorectal cancer, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Prostate cancer, Bladder & urothelial cancer, Cervical cancer and more); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (No rule of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts fired.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas CD44 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000026508-CD44/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000026508 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000026508/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:1681","ensembl":"ENSG00000026508","uniprot":"P16070","entrez":"960","firstDescribed":1989,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Stamenkovic et al, Cell, 1989, \"A lymphocyte molecule implicated in lymph node homing is a member of the cartilage link protein family\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2466575/","biology":"Cell-surface receptor that plays a role in cell-cell interactions, cell adhesion and migration, helping them to sense and respond to changes in the tissue microenvironment. Participates thereby in a wide variety of cellular functions including the activation, recirculation and homing of T-lymphocytes, haematopoiesis, inflammation and response to bacterial infection. Engages, through its ectodomain, extracellular matrix components such as hyaluronan/HA, collagen, growth factors, cytokines or proteases and serves as a platform for signal transduction by assembling, via its cytoplasmic domain, protein complexes containing receptor kinases and membrane proteases. Such effectors include PKN2, the RhoGTPases RAC1 and RHOA, Rho-kinases and phospholipase C that coordinate signalling pathways promoting calcium mobilisation and actin-mediated cytoskeleton reorganisation essential for cell migration and adhesion. Upon interaction with LGALS9 ligand, activates downstream signalling components including LCK, ERK and MAPK to promotes NK cell activation. Location: Cell membrane; Cell projection, microvillus; Secreted (UniProt). Locus 11p13 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease","Ovarian cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease","Colorectal cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease","Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: CIViC evidence names this disease","Prostate cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease","Bladder & urothelial cancer: CIViC evidence names this disease"],"targetClass":"other","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/cd44/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"urothelial","kind":"cancer","name":"Bladder & urothelial cancer","route":"/cancers/urothelial/"},{"id":"cervical","kind":"cancer","name":"Cervical cancer","route":"/cancers/cervical/"},{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"},{"id":"gastric","kind":"cancer","name":"Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer","route":"/cancers/gastric/"},{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"hcc","kind":"cancer","name":"Hepatocellular carcinoma","route":"/cancers/hcc/"},{"id":"ovarian","kind":"cancer","name":"Ovarian cancer","route":"/cancers/ovarian/"},{"id":"prostate","kind":"cancer","name":"Prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"intravasation-ctc-survival","kind":"pathway","name":"Intravasation & circulating tumour cells","route":"/pathways/intravasation-ctc-survival/"},{"id":"proteoglycans-in-cancer","kind":"pathway","name":"Proteoglycans in cancer","route":"/pathways/proteoglycans-in-cancer/"}]}}