Prognostic significance of expression of VEGF and Cox-2 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its association with expression of C-erbB2 and EGFR.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This study evaluated several tumor angiogenesis-related markers to examine their expression pattern and relation to clinicopathologic implications of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

METHODS

Paraffin sections from 69 nasopharyngeal carcinomas obtained before radiotherapy were prepared. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), C-erbB2, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) were investigated by immunohistochemistry and then correlated with various clinicopathologic parameters.

RESULTS

VEGF was inversely correlated with C-erbB2 (P = 0.036). In survival analysis, high mitosis (≥5/10 high power field) was significantly associated with worse relapse-free survival in univariate analysis (P = 0.048) but not in multivariate analysis (P = 0.153). High stage, high mitotic rate, absence of VEGF, and presence of Cox-2 were associated with worse survival in both univariate analysis (P = 0.002, P = 0.038, P = 0.044, and P = 0.028, respectively) and multivariate analysis (P = 0.007, P = 0.036, P = 0.047, and P = 0.004, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Absence of VEGF is a useful indicator of poor prognosis in addition to Cox-2 expression, high stage, and high mitosis.