VEGF-D expression and correlation with prognosis and metastasis in breast cancer

[Objective] To investigate the protein and mRNA expression of VEGF-D in breast cancer and to find their correlation with prognosis and metastasis.[Methods] High sentitive S-P immunohistochemical method and in situ hybridization were used to detect the protein and mRNA expression of VEGF-D in 115 breast cancer specimens.[Results] Immunohistochemistry revealed that among the 115 cases,the positive rates of VEGF-D was 79.1%(91/115).There was a significant correlation between the expression of VEGF-D protein and lymphatic metastasis(P =0.003).However,it was not correlated with the age,the size of tumor and clinical stages(P 0.05).The mumber of VEGFR-3 positive vessels in lymph node metasis group(17.94±5.24)was significantly higher than that in nonmetastatic(13.25±4.65)(P =0.018).The postoperative survival period was significantly shorter in VEGF-D positive expression group comparing with that in negative one(P =0.0024).The result of the in situ hybridization,the positive rate of VEGF-DmRNA was 69.4%,which followed closely that of protein-expression.[Conclusion] VEGF-D may play important roles in tumor lymphayenesis,metastasis,and prognosis of breast cancer.