Shibusa T, Shijubo N, Abe S
Third Department of Internal Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
Clin Cancer Res. 1998 Jun;4(6):1483-7.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most important factors for angiogenesis in various malignant tumors. However, the biological significance of VEGF in lung adenocarcinoma remains unclear. We stained intratumoral microvessels immunohistochemically using anti-CD34 antibody and analyzed VEGF expression using anti-VEGF antibody in 44 cases of stage I lung adenocarcinoma. Of the 44 patients studied, 14 patients had a postoperative relapse, and 30 patients did not. The mean microvessel count (MVC) in stage I lung adenocarcinoma was 79.5 +/- 26.9 per x200 microscopic field. Immunohistochemical expression of VEGF was found in 27 of 44 cases of stage I lung adenocarcinoma. The mean MVC in cases of VEGF-positive lung adenocarcinoma (86.4 +/- 28.2) was significantly higher than that in cases of VEGF-negative lung adenocarcinoma (68.6 +/- 21.4; P < 0.05). The high-MVC group patients (MVC > 80) had significantly worse survival rates than those in the low-MVC group (MVC < or = 80; P < 0.01), and patients with VEGF-negative tumors had significantly better survival rates than those with VEGF-positive tumors (P < 0.05). We conclude that angiogenesis, as assessed by intratumoral MVCs, is a significant prognostic factor in stage I lung adenocarcinoma, and that VEGF is an important angiogenic factor in stage I lung adenocarcinoma.
血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）是多种恶性肿瘤血管生成的最重要因素之一。然而，VEGF在肺腺癌中的生物学意义仍不清楚。我们用抗CD34抗体对44例I期肺腺癌患者的瘤内微血管进行免疫组化染色，并用抗VEGF抗体分析VEGF表达。在研究的44例患者中，14例术后复发，30例未复发。I期肺腺癌的平均微血管计数（MVC）为每200倍显微镜视野79.5±26.9。44例I期肺腺癌中有27例发现VEGF免疫组化表达。VEGF阳性肺腺癌病例的平均MVC（86.4±28.2）显著高于VEGF阴性肺腺癌病例（68.6±21.4；P<0.05）。高MVC组患者（MVC>80）的生存率显著低于低MVC组患者（MVC≤80；P<0.01），VEGF阴性肿瘤患者的生存率显著高于VEGF阳性肿瘤患者（P<0.05）。我们得出结论，通过瘤内MVC评估的血管生成是I期肺腺癌的一个重要预后因素，并且VEGF是I期肺腺癌中一个重要的血管生成因子。
