Clinicopathological significance of lymphangiogenesis detected by immunohistochemistry using D2-40 monoclonal antibody in breast cancer.

To elucidate the association between the lymphangiogenesis and clinicopathological factors including the survival in breast cancer, 91 Japanese patients with breast cancer were investigated.　The lymphangiogenesis was evaluated by the count of lymph vessel density (LVD) with immunohistochemical method using D2-40 monoclonal antibody, a specific marker for lymphatic endothelial cells.D2-40-positive lymph vessels were detected in 87 of 91 cases, and were mainly distributed in the peritumoral lesions or around the tumor edge.　There was a significant difference in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between patients with high LVD and with low LVD (p=0.02, 0.01, respectively, log-rank test).　In addition, LVD significantly correlated with the following clinicopathological factors: menopausal status (p<0.01), tumor size (p<0.01), lymph-node status (p=0.01) lymphatic vessel invasion (LVI) (p<0.01), blood vessel invasion (BVI) (p=0.03) and estrogen receptor status (ER) (p=0.02).Those data suggest that D2-40 monoclonal antibody is a useful marker for evaluating the LVD and its evaluation is helpful to predict the survival in breast cancer.