Intratumoral microvessel density, response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome of patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to assess intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) in tissue samples from primary ovarian carcinomas, and to correlate this angiogenic parameter with the common clinico-pathological variables, response to chemotherapy and prognosis of patients with this malignancy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The investigation was conducted on 64 patients who underwent initial surgery for FIGO stages I-IV ovarian carcinoma. Paraffin-embedded sections of primary tumor specimens were analyzed for IMD by immunohistochemistry using anti-CD34 antibodies. In detail, we assessed the 49 patients with advanced (FIGO stages II-IV) disease. Postoperative chemotherapy consisted of paclitaxel/platinum-based chemotherapy in 36 (73.5%) patients and platinum-based chemotherapy in 13.

RESULTS

The IMD ranged from 6 to 115 microvessels/field, with a median value of 40, and correlated with none of the common clinico-pathological variables of ovarian carcinoma. As for the patients with advanced disease, women with elevated IMD (> or = 40 microvessels/field) had a higher chance of achieving a complete response to chemotherapy when compared to those with lower IMD (p = 0.0068). Multiple logistic regression showed that IMD was an independent predictor of complete response to chemotherapy (p = 0.0094). By log-rank test, patients with elevated IMD had a better progression-free survival (p = 0.0039) and a better overall survival (p = 0.0365) when compared to those with lower IMD. The Cox model showed that IMD was the only independent prognostic variable for both progression-free survival (p = 0.0112) and overall survival (p = 0.0296).

DISCUSSION

The present retrospective analysis seems to show a positive association between IMD, response to chemotherapy, mainly represented by a paclitaxel/platinum-based regimen, and clinical outcome of patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma.