CD40 is overexpressed by HPV16/18-E6 positive cervical carcinoma and correlated with clinical parameters and vascular density.

CD40 is expressed in many tumor cells, however, its role in tumor biology is yet to be demonstrated. In the present study, we investigated the role of CD40 in cervical carcinoma. In vivo, we evaluated CD40 expression in 56 cervical carcinoma tissues, 43 cervicitis and 38 normal cervix, and investigated the relationship between CD40 and HPV antigen, histopathological parameters, vascular density, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expressions. The results clearly demonstrated that CD40 expression, including membranous and cytoplasmic staining, was significantly higher in cervical carcinoma than in the cervicitis and normal cervix. The expression of CD40 was significantly correlated with HPV and VEGF expressions and microvessel density (MVD). These observations provide evidence that CD40 may be involved in neovascularization of cervical carcinoma, they also suggest that CD40 and VEGF may be useful biomarkers for evaluating the risk of developing cervical carcinoma, and may also be used as a target for therapy.