Expression and significance of vascular endothelial growth factor in human esophageal carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in esophageal carcinoma and its effect on angiogenesis,tumor invasion and metastasis. Methods: In situ hybrization and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression of VEGF and microvessel density (MVD) in 58 cases of esophageal carcinoma. Results: VEGFmRNA and its protein were highly expressed in tumor cells of esophageal carcinoma with the positive rates were 62.1 %(36/58) and 60.3 %(35/58) respectively VEGF expression was closely correlated with depth of invasion, lymph-node metastasis and TNM stage, but the relation to the differentiation and histclogic types was insignificant. The MVD in VEGF- positive group was considerably higher than that in VEGF-negative one (p0.01) . Conclusions:VEGF can promote angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis of esophageal carcinoma. VEGF is an useful biological predictor of progression in esophageal carcinoma.