Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast

To detect the expression of VEGF and MVD count in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast to clarify the association of VEGF expression and MVD count with the clinicopathologic features. The expressions of VEGF, ER, PR, C-erbB-2 and MVD count in 88 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma of breast were examined by immunohistochemistry staining (SP-method). Sixty-two out of the eighty-eight specimens of breast carcinoma (70.45%) showed positive expression of VEGF. The positive rate of VEGF in cases with lymph node metastasis was higher than that without lymph node metastasis ( P <0.05). The positive rate of VEGF in stage IIb-III was higher than that in stage I-IIa ( P <0.05). The positive rate of VEGF in C-erbB-2 positive group was higher than that in C-erbB-2 negative group ( P <0.05). Higher expression of VEGF was observed in cases with higher tissue differentiation degree ( P <0.05). Also, significant higher MVD count was observed in cases with higher tissue differentiation degree ( P <0.01). The MVD count increased significantly with the increase of the expression of VEGF ( P <0.01). The result of this study suggested that in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast, angiogenesis and metastasis were mediated mainly by VEGF. The expression of VEGF and MVD might be reference predictors for the biological behavior of breast carcinoma. The antiangiogenic therapy which used VEGF as a target would become a new method to treat patients who were C-erbB-2 positive in the future.