The Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Its Relationship with Prognosis

[Purpose] To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its relationship with prognosis of NPC. [Methods] The expression of VEGF in 200 cases of NPC with followed-up data from 1990 to 2002 was analyzed by high-throughput tissue microarray technology and immunohistochemistry. The relationship between expression of VEGF and clinical characteristics of the patients with NPC was analyzed with chi-square test. The survival rates between different tissues VEGF expressions in NPC were compared. [Results] The positive expression of VEGF in NPC was observed mainly in cytoplasm of tumor cells. And the expression of VEGF in NPC tissue positively correlated with the TNM stage, recurrence and distant metastasis(P0.05). The 5 year overall survival rates of patients with positive and negative expression of VEGF were 40.11% and 67.75% respectively. The survival rates of different groups were significantly different by log rank test(P0.01). [Conclusion] The expression of VEGF in NPC tissue positively correlated with the TNM stage, recurrence and distant metastasis. High expression of VEGF in patients with NPC predicts poor prognosis.