EXPRESSION AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VEGF-C PROTEIN IN ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA

Objective To study the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and the role of VEGF-C in proliferation and metastasis of this cancer.MethodsExperssion of VEGF-C in 60 OSCC patients and paraneoplastic tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry technique, its relationship with the diseased region, size, pathologic grading, clinical staging and cervical-lymph-node metastasis was analyzed.ResultsThe expression of VEGF-C in OSCC was significantly higher than that in paraneoplastic tissue (u=7.747,P0.05); its strength of expression was closely related with the clinical staging and lymph node metastasis (r=0.564,0.706;P0.05), but not with the location, size and pathologic grading of the cancer. ConclusionVEGF-C, excreted by OSCC cells, induces hyperplasia and distension of surroun-ding lymphatic vessels is one of the important factors leading to regional lymph-node metastasis. It is hopeful that VEGF-C can be used as one of the indexes to predict the metastasis.