# CD44

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/cd44/  
OnCo record `cd44` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

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.

CIViC holds 17 clinical evidence items and 1 assertion across 9 variants, naming Cisplatin, RG7356 and Docetaxel.

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: 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
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: CD44
- Class: other
- 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).
- Where found: 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

## 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.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:1681: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:1681
- UniProt P16070: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P16070/entry
- NCBI Gene 960: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/960
- Ensembl ENSG00000026508: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000026508

## Connected records

- collections: [CIViC](https://onco.cc/collections/civic/)
- cancers: [Bladder & urothelial cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/urothelial/), [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/), [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gastric/), [Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/head-and-neck/), [Hepatocellular carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hcc/), [Ovarian cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/ovarian/), [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- pathways: [Intravasation & circulating tumour cells](https://onco.cc/pathways/intravasation-ctc-survival/), [Proteoglycans in cancer](https://onco.cc/pathways/proteoglycans-in-cancer/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/cd44.json