Relationship between the Expression of VEGF in HCC Tissues and Tumor Progression

Objective To investigate the relationship between VEGF expression and the clinical-pathology characteristic as well as the relapse rate of HCC.Methods The expression of VEGF protein was detected by immunohistochemical SP method in the HCC tissues(n=27),metastasis-carcinoma tissues(n=11) and its para-carcinomatous normal liver tissues(n=38).The expression of VEGF mRNA was determined by Real Time reverse transcriptase PCR in the three tissues.The relationship between VEGF expression in carcinomatous tissues and the clinical-pathology characteristics as well as the relapse rate were analyzed by statistics.Results The expression level of VEGF mRNA in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the para carcinomatous normal liver tissue(P0.05).The positive rate of VEGF protein expression was 77.8% in HCC tissues,significantly higher than the level of 15.8% in para carcinomatous tissues(P0.01).The positive rate of metastasis-carcinoma tissue was 36.4%,showing no statistical difference with that of para carcinomatous normal liver tissue(P0.05).In HCC patients with tumor diameter larger than 5 cm,85.7% showed an increase in VEGF expression,significantly higher than that of HCC patients with tumor diameter smaller than 5 cm;While in patients who relapsed within 2 years,87.5% showed an increase in VEGF expression,significantly higher than that of patients who relapsed within 1 year(P0.05).Conclusion The expression of VEGF in HCC tissues is significantly higher than that in the normal liver tissues and is related to the size of carcinoma and recurrence.