Expression of VEGF-D and lymphangiogenesis in breast cancer and its significance

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor D(VEGF-D)and lymphatic vessel density(LVD) in breast cancer relation to clinicopathological factors.METHODS: The Envision immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expressions of LYVE-1 and VEGF-D in 100 cases of breast cancer tissues and 20 cases of breast fibroadenoma tissues,the LVD was counted,and the relationship between the expression of VEGF-D and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed.RESULTS: For LVD,there was a significant statistic difference between peritumoral tissue of breast cancer and breast fibroadenoma(9.52±3.47 vs 1.31±1.02,P0.01).There was a significant correlation between LVD and grade(P0.01) and lymph node metastasis(P0.01).The positive rate of the expression of VEGF-D protein(76%) in breast cancer was significantly higher than that in breast fibroadenoma tissues(10%,P0.000 1).The expression of VEGF-D protein in breast cancer was correlated significantly with lymph node metastasis(P0.01).LVD in the peritumoral tissues with the positive expression of VEGF-D was significantly higher than that in peritnoral tissues with the negative expression of the proteins(11.39±2.72 vs 3.81±1.71,P0.01).The expression of VEGF-D proteins in the intratumoral tissues was significantly correlated with LVD in the peritumoral tissues of breast cancer.CONCLUSIONS: The lymphatic microvessel density is correlated with the expression of VEGF-D.VEGF-D and LVD is correlated with lymphatic metastasis.VEGF-D promotes lymphangiogenesis,increase lymphatic microvessel density,and drive lymphatic metastasis in breast cancer.