Increased vascular endothelial growth factor transcription in residual hepatocellular carcinoma after open versus laparoscopic hepatectomy in a small animal model

Abstract

Laparoscopic hepatic resection produces decreased VEGF mRNA expression in residual hepatoma cells compared with open resection. Decreased stimulation of angiogenesis promoters in the tumor microenvironment after minimally invasive liver resection may contribute to a lower residual disease burden and ultimately lead to a lower recurrence rate.

Herbal compound "Songyou Yin" reinforced the ability of interferon-alfa to inhibit the enhanced metastatic potential induced by palliative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma in nude mice

“…Our experimental research revealed that palliative resection is followed by acceleration of metastatic processes in the lungs. The increased pulmonary metastatic nodules were found in the palliative resection group (14.3 ± 4.7) compared to controls (8.7 ± 3.6), which may be partially due to breakdown of tumor MMP2/TIMP2 balance and in situ up-regulation of VEGF that was consistent with a recent report that confirmed increased VEGF transcription in residual HCC after hepatectomy in a small animal model [25]. …”

“…VEGF, a potent stimulator of tumor angiogenesis, is believed to have a major role in HCC angiogenesis, growth, and metastasis. In this study, we found palliative liver resection elevated tumor VEGF levels markedly, in accordance with the literature [25]. The alteration of endostatin (a potent angiogenesis inhibitor) and MT1-MMP (an activator of MMP2) was minor, which indicated that elevated tumor VEGF and increased MMP2 activity were not directly due to endostatin and MT1-MMP, whose detailed molecular mechanism remains to be elucidated.…”

Laparoscopic Liver Surgery: New Frontiers

“…One can expect improved oncologic outcomes after application of laparoscopic techniques due to less invasive intervention and therefore less stress response, less immunologic alterations and minor activation of regenerative growth which promotes tumour recurrence (106)(107). However these theoretical and experimental premises have to be confirmed in clinical settings.…”

Liver Dysplasia: US Molecular Imaging with Targeted Contrast Agent Enables Early Assessment

“…Clinically established nontargeted SonoVue microbubbles served as a control. As an animal model for liver carcinogenesis, we used hepatocyte-specific NEMO knock-out mice that develop chronic hepatitis after birth and show disease progression to dysplasia and hepatocellular carcinomas upregulation of proangiogenic receptors (eg, VEGFR2) is observed (26)(27)(28). Detection of this enhanced receptor expression might be an alternative diagnostic strategy for detection of liver dysplasia or well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinomas.…”