[The relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor, microvascular density, lymph node metastasis and prognosis of breast carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) microvascular density (MVD), lymph node metastasis and prognosis of breast carcinoma (BC). METHODS: VEGF protein expression and MVD in 92 cases of BC and VEGF mRNA expression in part of the cases were studied by immunohistochemistry methods and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. RESULTS: VEGF mRNA expression in BC tumor tissues were higher than those in adjacent normal tissues. Increment of both VEGF(121) and VEGF(165) showed significant difference (P < 0.05 approximately 0.01). In addition, VEGF(145) expression was also observed in BC. There was a close positive correlation between VEGF and MVD (r = 0.702, P < 0.01). VEGF protein expression and MVD correlated significantly with lymph node metastasis and tumor relapse (P < 0.05 approximately 0.01). The time period of relapse-free-survival (RFS) in the patient group with high VEGF expression and MVD was significantly lower than RFS in the group with low VEGF expression and MVD (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: VEGF is highly related to angiogenesis of BC. The increase of VEGF and MVD may promote lymph node metastasis and relapse of BC. VEGF and MVD may have prognostic value in RFS of BC patients.