Cancer Hospital of Medical College, Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong Province, China.
Int J Exp Pathol. 2013 Feb;94(1):39-46. doi: 10.1111/iep.12005.
Vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) is a crucial regulator of the development of lymphatic vessels and is involved in the lymph node metastasis of cancer. The levels of VEGF-C expression and lymphatic vessel density (LVD) in 128 gastro-oesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (GEJA) tissues were examined by immunohistochemistry and analysed for their association with clinicopathological features and disease-free survival. We found that 75.0% of tumour samples displayed strong immunoreactivity to VEGF-C. The levels of VEGF-C expression in the tumour tissues were associated with the stages of the clinical tumours and the lymph node metastasis status, but not with the age, gender and the size and type of tumours in the cohort. Similarly, LVD, as evaluated by anti-D2-40 staining, was also associated with the clinical stages of GEJA. The values of LVD were positively correlated with the levels of VEGF-C expression in these samples (r = 0.3760, P = 0.0001). High levels of VEGF-C expression and high values of LVD were associated with shorter periods of disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with GEJA (P < 0.001). In addition, GEJA at N1 and N2 stages, at T4 stage, chemotherapy after surgery, high levels of VEGF-C expression and lower marginal resection were independent factors for the prognosis of DFS in patients with GEJA. Our data indicate that VEGF-C may promote the lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis of GEJA and that VEGF-C may be a valuable biomarker for the diagnosis of lymphatic metastasis and a prognostic factor of the survival of patients with GEJA.
血管内皮生长因子 C（VEGF-C）是淋巴管发育的关键调节因子，参与癌症的淋巴结转移。通过免疫组织化学检查了 128 例胃食管交界腺癌（GEJA）组织中 VEGF-C 的表达水平和淋巴管密度（LVD），并分析了它们与临床病理特征和无病生存的关系。我们发现，75.0%的肿瘤样本对 VEGF-C 表现出强烈的免疫反应性。肿瘤组织中 VEGF-C 的表达水平与临床肿瘤的分期和淋巴结转移状态有关，但与队列中患者的年龄、性别以及肿瘤的大小和类型无关。同样，通过抗-D2-40 染色评估的 LVD 也与 GEJA 的临床分期有关。这些样本中 LVD 的值与 VEGF-C 表达水平呈正相关（r = 0.3760，P = 0.0001）。VEGF-C 表达水平高和 LVD 值高与 GEJA 患者无病生存期（DFS）较短有关（P < 0.001）。此外，GEJA 的 N1 和 N2 期、T4 期、手术后化疗、VEGF-C 表达水平高和边缘切除率低是 GEJA 患者 DFS 预后的独立因素。我们的数据表明，VEGF-C 可能促进 GEJA 的淋巴管生成和淋巴转移，并且 VEGF-C 可能是诊断淋巴转移和预测 GEJA 患者生存的有价值的生物标志物。
