Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in preoperative biopsy specimens correlates with disease recurrence in patients with early gastric carcinoma

Abstract

BACKGROUND Recently many studies have demonstrated that the degree of tumor angiogenesis is related to the aggressiveness of the tumor and clinical outcome. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a well characterized inducer of angiogenesis. In this study, the authors investigated the prognostic significance of VEGF expression in patients with early gastric carcinoma together with p53 gene abnormality and tumor cell proliferation. METHODS One hundred ninety‐five endoscopically biopsied specimens obtained preoperatively from patients with early gastric carcinoma were studied immunohistochemically. RESULTS According to conventional clinicopathologic factors, submucosal invasion, lymph node metastases, and tumor size were associated significantly with the incidence of disease recurrence. According to conventional biologic factors, VEGF expression was observed more frequently in patients with disease recurrence compared with those without disease recurrence whereas neither p53 abnormality nor tumor cell proliferation were correlated with prognosis. Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated that VEGF expression (as well as submucosal invasion and lymph node metastases) is an independent predictor of disease recurrence. CONCLUSIONS The results of the current study show that VEGF expression may be a useful prognostic factor for patients with early gastric carcinoma. Cancer 1999;86:566–71. © 1999 American Cancer Society.

Why is the coexistence of gastric cancer and duodenal ulcer rare? Examination of factors related to both gastric cancer and duodenal ulcer

“…2, 4) Jones et al [82] and Suzuki et al [83] stated that enhanced vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene expression was identified to contribute to the healing of peptic ulcer, whereas Takahashi et al [84] and Maeda et al [85] reported that gastric cancer frequently displayed high levels of VEGF expression associated with intramucosal microvessel density, and Feng et al [86] indicated that high levels of VEGF expression have also been observed in gastric premalignant lesions such as chronic atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia. Moreover, Tahara et al [87] indicated that the VEGF 1612A polymorphism was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer.…”

Expression profiling of gastric adenocarcinoma using cDNA array

“…17 Expression of VEGF, a multifunctional cytokine, is crucial in angiogenesis during the development of cancer and correlates with disease recurrence in patients with early gastric carcinoma. 18 p38 MAP kinase activation by VEGF mediates actin reorganization and cell migration in human endothelial cells. 19 By modulating cell migration, p38 may thus be an important regulator of angiogenesis.…”

Abnormal expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin may be a molecular marker of submucosal invasion and lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer

“…However, these factors cannot be used for predicting lymph node metastasis at the preoperative stage. Previous groups have therefore sought to identify biomarkers for predicting lymph node metastasis 11,25,27 . Since lymph node metastases are present in only 3±5 per cent of mucosal tumours, but in 10±25 per cent of submucosal tumours 1 , it is also important to assess invasion depth before operation in early gastric cancer.…”