The level of its expression has been found to correlate directly with tumour progression and metastatic potential, thus establishing CD146 as an important candidate of tumour growth and metastasis.
CD146 expression in vascular endothelial cells was significantly higher than that in IDC, and was positively correlated with tumor progression in IMPC and IDC-NOS.
MCAM/MUC18 is a cell-surface glycoprotein of 113 kDa, originally identified as a melanoma antigen, whose expression is associated with tumor progression and the development of metastatic potential.
MUC18, a marker of tumor progression in human melanoma, shows sequence similarity to the neural cell adhesion molecules of the immunoglobulin superfamily.