[Expression and clinical significance of vascular endothelial growth factor in human non-small cell lung cancer].

BACKGROUND: To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its relation to clinical characteristics and prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and to study the possible mechanism of VEGF. METHODS: The expression of VEGF and intratumoral microvascular density (MVD) were determined in 96 NSCLC tissues by SP immunohistochemical method. RESULTS: VEGF was mainly stained in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. The positive rate of VEGF expression was 64.6% in 96 patients. The positive rate of VEGF expression was related to stages (P=0.041), but not to other clinical characteristics of NSCLC (P > 0.05). The expression of VEGF in high MVD group (80.4%) was significantly higher than that in low MVD group (46.7%) (P=0.001). The patients with positive VEGF expression had a significantly shorter survival duration than those with negative VEGF expression (P < 0.01). By Cox proportional hazard model analysis, the expression of VEGF and clinical stage were considered the independent predictors for the prognosis of NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that VEGF plays an important role in the angiogenesis of NSCLC, and that detection of VEGF expression may be helpful to predict prognosis of NSCLC.