Vascular endothelial growth factor C and D expression correlates with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with resected esophageal cancer

Rok, strany: 2011, 311 - 319

Vascular endothelial growth factors C (VEGF-C) and D (VEGF-D) are important lymphangiogenic factors in human cancers. We studied the expression of VEGF-C and VEGF-D using immunohistochemistry in 73 resected esophageal cancer specimens, and correlated the results with patient clinicopathologic features and survival. <br />High expression of VEGF-C was identified in 40 (54.7%) patients, and it correlated positively with histological grade (p=0.038), tumor stage (p=0.01), depth of tumor invasion (p=0.036) and lymph node metastasis (p=0.001). In 48 of 73 (65.7%) tumors, the VEGF-D protein was also expressed at high levels. VEGF-D immunoreactivity significantly correlated with tumor location (p=0.027), size of tumor (p=0.015), histological grade (p=0.02), depth of invasion (p=0.001) and lymph node metastasis (p=0.018). In logistic multivariate analysis, high expression of VEGF-C (OR 1.941, 95% CI 1.263-7.289, p=0.024) was associated with lymph node metastasis. Calculating the prognostic relevance revealed that both VEGF-C and VEGF-D correlated with decreased overall survival (p=0.01, p=0.003), disease free survival (p=0.02, p=0.006), and cancer-specific survival (p=0.03, p=0.005).<br />In conclusion, our results suggest that high levels of both VEGF-C and VEGF-D proteins are associated with lymph node involvement, and that VEGF-C expression is an independent predictor of risk for lymph node metastasis in esophageal cancer. In locally advanced disease, overexpression of VEGF-C and VEGF-D may be useful in identifying patients who are more likely to have a poor prognosis even after curative resection. Keywords: esophageal cancer, VEGF-C; VEGF-D, lymph node metastasis, prognosis.

ISO 690:

Kozlowski, M., Naumnik, W., Niklinski, J., Milewski, R., Dziegielewski, P., Laudanski, J. 2011. Vascular endothelial growth factor C and D expression correlates with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with resected esophageal cancer. In NEOPLASMA, vol. 58, no.4, pp. 311-319. 0028-2685.

APA:

Kozlowski, M., Naumnik, W., Niklinski, J., Milewski, R., Dziegielewski, P., Laudanski, J. (2011). Vascular endothelial growth factor C and D expression correlates with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with resected esophageal cancer. NEOPLASMA, 58(4), 311-319. 0028-2685.