Eroğlu Aydan, Ersöz Cevriye, Karasoy Durdu, Sak Serpil
Surgical Oncology Unit, Department of General Surgery, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
Department of Pathology, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
Adv Clin Exp Med. 2017 Mar-Apr;26(2):245-249. doi: 10.17219/acem/58784.
Two members of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family, VEGF-C and -D, are known as lymphangiogenic growth factors and play an important role in tumor lymphangiogenesis via activation of the VEGF receptor (VEGFR)-3, which is expressed in lymphatic endothelial cells. D2-40 is a specific antibody for lymphatic vessel density (LVD).
In the present study, we have aimed to evaluate whether intraand peri-tumoral D2-40-positive lymphatic vessels affect lymph node metastasis and to investigate the relationship between LVD and lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.
We have evaluated the relationships between lymph node metastasis and VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGFR-3 and D2-40 expressions in breast cancer cells using immunohistochemistry. VEGF-C, VEGF-D and VEGFR-3 expression were found in tumor cells in the majority of the cases (83.75, 97.5 and 95%, respectively).
There was a significant positive relationship between VEGF-D expression and lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05) however no significant association was found in VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 expressions. It was found that patients with high-expression of VEGF-D have a high level of both periand intra-tumoral LVD compared to those with low expression of VEGF-D (p < 0.05).
Our results support that examination of VEGF-D expression in breast cancer cells may be beneficial in the identification of lymph node metastasis.
血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）家族的两个成员，VEGF-C和VEGF-D，被认为是淋巴管生成生长因子，通过激活在淋巴管内皮细胞中表达的VEGF受体（VEGFR）-3在肿瘤淋巴管生成中起重要作用。D2-40是淋巴管密度（LVD）的特异性抗体。
在本研究中，我们旨在评估肿瘤内和肿瘤周围D2-40阳性淋巴管是否影响淋巴结转移，并研究乳腺癌中LVD与淋巴结转移之间的关系。
我们使用免疫组织化学评估了乳腺癌细胞中淋巴结转移与VEGF-C、VEGF-D、VEGFR-3和D2-40表达之间的关系。在大多数病例（分别为83.75%、97.5%和95%）的肿瘤细胞中发现了VEGF-C、VEGF-D和VEGFR-3表达。
VEGF-D表达与淋巴结转移之间存在显著正相关（p < 0.05），然而在VEGF-C和VEGFR-3表达中未发现显著关联。发现与VEGF-D低表达的患者相比，VEGF-D高表达的患者肿瘤周围和肿瘤内LVD水平均较高（p < 0.05）。
我们的结果支持检测乳腺癌细胞中VEGF-D表达可能有助于识别淋巴结转移。
