Analysis of the correlation between VEGF-C and its receptor Flt4 expressions and clinicopathological status and prognosis of breast cancer

Objective To clarify the expressions of VEGF-C and Flt4 in breast cancer and their relationship to clinicopathological status and prognosis of tumour.Methods Samples of 60 cases of breast cancer were collected after operation,then embedded with paraffin,sectioned in 4 μm thickness,and stained immunohistochemically to observe the expressions of VEGF and its receptor F1t4 in breast cancer tissues.Results There was a positive correlation in the expression between VEGF-C and F1t4(P0.01),VEGF-C and proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA,P0.01),and Flt4 and PCNA(P0.01).The positive index of VEGF-C/F1t4 of breast cancer in the metastatic lymph node group was higher than that in the non-metastatic lymph node group(P0.05).No statistical relationship was found between the VEGF-C level and age,tumor size,histology grading,ER,PR and pathological types of breast cancer patients(P0.05 respectively).There was a statistical correlation between the outcome and the tumor size,lymph node metastasis,histology grading,ER,and PR in breast cancer patients(P0.05).VEGF-C was not statistically correlated with the outcome.Conclusion There is a strong positive relationship between VEGF-C expression and its receptor Flt4.VEGF-C/Flt4 promotes the proliferation of breast cancer cells.VEGF-C/Flt4 may accelerate lymph node metastasis through some ways,but is not correlated statistically with other clinicopathological characteristics like tumor size,histology grading,ER,PR and pathological types.Tumor size,lymph node metastasis,histology grading,ER and PR all have statistical correlation with the prognosis of breast cancer,so can be taken as indexes of predicting the prognosis of breast cancer.However,VEGF-C can not be used as an independent index in judging the prognosis of breast cancer.