Expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in Breast

Objective To investigate the relationship of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and tumor angiogenesis to the clinical pathological parameters of breast carcinoma. Methods S-P immunohistochemical methods were used to detect the expression of VEGF protein and micro-vessel density (MVD) in 46 specimens of breast carcinomas. Results The results showed that VEGF protein located in cytoplasm and CD34 in cytoplasm of vascular endothelial cell. The positive rates of VEGF protein in breast carcinoma were 76.09%, and the expression of CD34 was positive in all 46 samples. Both VEGF expression and MVD value were positively correlated with the histological grade (P0.05) and lymph node metastasis (P0.01), but not related to the histological type (P0.05). The level of MVD was significantly higher in VEGF positive group than in VEGF negative one (t=2.220,P0.05). Conclusion VEGF might be highly related to angiogenesis of breast carcinoma and promote growth, invasion and metastasis of tumor. The expression of VEGF or MVD might be one of the reference predictors for the biological behavior of breast carcinoma.