Expression Of Survivin, VEGF-C And VEGFR-3 In Breast Cancer And Its Clinical Significance

【Objective】Breast cancer is one of the malignant tumors which are commonly found in females. Metastasis and recurrence of breast cancer are important reasons which affect the quality of life and the survival time of patients. Recent studies have found that there is close relationship between the generation of blood vessel and lymph vessel of breast cancer and its progress, invasion and prognosis. Now, the research on the generation of blood vessel and lymph vessel of tumor is focused on inhibitor of apoptosis proteins and the vascular endothelial growth factor family. In this experiment, we detected the proteins expression of Survivin, VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in breast cancer, response to investigate the expression level of them in breast cancers, and the relationship among Survivin, VEGF-C, VEGFR-3 and clinicopathologic parameters. Do study the significance of them in the carcinogenesis and the development of breast carcinoma, in order to clarify the relationship between lymphangiogenesis and their mechanism in metastasis of breast cancer.【Mothod】The expressions of Survivin, VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 were studied in 60 patients with breast cancer by streptavidin-peroxidase(S-P) immunohistochemical technique.χ2 test and T test regressions were used to analyze the data. Spearman method was used to investigate the correlation among Survivin, VEGF-C and VEGFR-3.【Result】1. The positive rate of Survivin in breast cancer was 60.0% (36/60). In 60 cases of breast cancer, the positive expression rate of survivin gene in the group with lymph node metastasis and the group without lymph node metastasis were no significant difference between them (P>0.05). Statistical analysis revealed that surviving expression was independent of clinicopathologic parameters. And no correlation was found between the Survivin expression with patient's age, tumor size, pathological stage, histological grade and pathological type.2. VEGF-C expression was observed in the cytoplasm of carcinoma cell. The positive percent of VEGF-C expression in breast cancer with lymph node metastasis was higher than that without lymph node metastasis(77.8% versus 33.3%, P<0.05). No correlation was found between the VEGF-C expression with patient's age, tumor size, pathological stage, histological grade and pathological type. 3. Forty-nine (81.7%) of the 60 breast cancer were highly positive for VEGFR-3 protein by immunohistochemistry. The positive percent of VEGFR-3 expression in breast cancer with lymph node metastasis was higher than that without lymph node metastasis(93.3% versus 46.7%, P<0.05).VEGFR-3 expression was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis. Statistical analysis further showed that there was no significant correlation between VEGFR-3 with patient age,tumor size, pathological stage, histological grade and pathological type. The number of VEGFR-3 positive lymphatic vessels in the lymph- node metastasis group was significantly higher than that of the group with no lymph node metastasis (0.889±1.270: 4.422±1.780; P<0.05).4. There was positive relations between the expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in breast cancer(r=0.487). The expression of their in all cases also correlated positively with that of Survivin(r=0.361, r=0.404).【Conclusion】1. A high expression of inhibitor apoptosis protein of Survivin was found in breast cancer. The expression of survivin in breast cancer was strongly associated with the cell apoptosis index. The expression of survivin is not significantly correlated with the patient's age, tumor size, clinical stage, histological grade, tumor grade and lymph nodes metastasis of breast cancer. It demonstrates that the aberrant expression is closely correlated with the carcinogensis and the development of breast cancer. It may be a significant prognostic parameter of worse outcome in breast cancer.2. A high expression of inhibitor apoptosis protein of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 was found in breast cancer. Moreover, there were positive relations between the expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in breast cancer.The expression of VEGF-C, VEGFR-3 and VEGFR-3 positive lymphatic vessels in breast cancer was strongly associated with lymph node metastasis, and demonstrates that the aberrant expression is closely correlated with the lymph node metastasis of breast cancer.3. The expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 in all cases also correlated positively with that of Survivin. These data demonstrated that therer may be some relations in disregulated apoptosis and angiogenesis in medical data system.