Background: The angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A plays an important role in breast cancer progression. However, the involvement of VEGF-C and VEGF-D, two newer members of the VEGF family, in breast carcinoma and their relationship with clinicopathologic parameters have not been clearly demonstrated.
Methods: In this study, the expression levels of VEGF-A, VEGF-C, and VEGF-D protein in 107 breast carcinoma cases and 22 nonmalignant breast tissue samples were examined by immunohistochemistry and quantitated by image analysis.
Results: Higher expression of VEGF-C and VEGF-D was found in breast carcinomas than in nonmalignant breast tissue samples. Moreover, expression of VEGF-A, VEGF-C, and VEGF-D was significantly and positively correlated with ErbB2 expression. High levels of VEGF-A expression were associated with shorter disease-free survival (DFS). Patients with tumors expressing high levels of VEGF-C or VEGF-D showed a notable trend for worse DFS, however, it was not statistically significant. The combination of VEGF-A and VEGF-C status predicted survival better than either marker alone.
Conclusions: Our study suggests that expression of the angiogenic and lymphangiogenic factors (i.e., VEGFs) might be regulated at least in part by ErbB2. In addition, the combination of VEGF-A and VEGF-C status may better predict prognosis of patients with breast carcinoma than VEGF-A alone.
Copyright 2002 American Cancer Society.