Expression of VEGF and EGFR in gastric cancer undergoing potentially curative surgery and its significance

Objective To investigate whether expressions of epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in tumor tissues are related to clinicopathologic parameters,prognostic assessment and identification of patients treated with tailored therapies in gastric cancer.Methods Determination of VEGF and EGFR in 51 gastric cancer samples as well as 20 normal gastric mucosa specimens from non-cancer patients was performed by immunohistochemical staining.The correlation of VEGF and EGFR expressions with the clinicopathologic parameters was investigated in 51 patients undergoing potentially curative surgery.Results The positive rate of EGFR and VEGF expressions was significantly higher in gastric cancer samples than that in normal mucosa specimens(respectively 64.7% vs 0% and 58.8% vs 10.0%,P=0.000).The positive expressions of EGFR and VEGF were significantly higher in gastric cancers with poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas,distant metastasis,vascular-lymphatic invasion,pT3/T4,LNM,and TNM-Ⅲ/Ⅳ(respectively,P0.01 and P0.05).Nearly 69.7% of EGFR positive tumor cases were stained for VEGF positive in the meantime.The radical resection rate in gastric cancers with both positive EGFR and VEGF was 30.4%,significantly lower than that with both negative EGFR and VEGF(P=0.000).Conclusions EGFR and VEGF expression up-regulation in gastric tumor is significantly related to cell differentiation,depth of invasion,vascular-lymphatic invasion,LNM and TNM stage.EGFR may be implicated in gastric cancer growth and angiogenesis through up-regulation of VEGF.Expressions of VEGF and EGFR may be crucial prognostic parameters to identify patients in same TNM stage who may benefit from tailored target treatments.