1Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Women's University, Seoul, Korea. 2Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Ewha Women's University, Seoul, Korea. 3Ewha Medical Research Center, College of Medicine, Ewha Women's University, Seoul, Korea.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Angiogenesis is an essential component of tumor growth and proven to be a prognostic factor in breast, cervix, prostate carcinoma and melanoma. This study was designed to define the relationship of microvessel density with overall survival, clinicopathologic data and with other reported prognostic factors in gastric carcinoma.
METHODS: We studied resected tumor specimens from thirty-two patients with gastric carcinoma who underwent gastrectomy at Ewha Women's University Hospital from January, 1989 to December, 1991. Specimens were investigated by staining with a monoclonal antibody aganist factor VIII-related antigen, which was localized to vascular endothelium. Correlation between the microvessel count (X200), various clinicopathologic factors, EGFR and p53 were studied.
RESULTS: The microvessel count was increased with higher histologic staging. The microvessel count was significantly higher in group with lymph node metastasis than in those without lymph node metastasis (60.7 vs 27.4, p=0.02). In patients with high microvessel count (> or =30), overall survival time was shorter than in those with low count (<30), but insignificant statistically (p>0.05). The microvessel count was higher in group with recurrence than in those without recurrence (48.1 vs 33.2, p=0.05).
CONCLUSION: Microvessel count may be a prognostic indicator in gastric carcinoma but larger scale study should be followed.
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