| Objective: Tumor metastasis involves a series of complex processes that include detachment of tumor cells from the primary tumor mass, microinvasion of tumor cells into stromal tissue, intravasation of tumor cells into lymphatic or blood vessels, extravasation, and growth of tumor cells in secondary sites. The capacity of tumor cells to induce angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis may regulate the probability of blood and lymph vascular metastasis.Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a number of the ErbB family. The extensive expression of EGFR is associated with the poor neoplastic cell differentiation, the development of distant metastases and the worse prognosis. After the activating of the EGFR on the cell surface, it is found to induce EGFR phosphorylation and activate tyrosine kinase, and then activate the intracellular signal transduction which can enhance the cell proliferation, inhibit cell apoptosis and facilitate the tumor invasion and metastasis.It has recently been shown that lympangiogenic growth factor VEGF-C (vascular endothelial growth factor-C), and it s special receptor, VEGF receptor-3 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3, VEGFR-3), may play an important role in the promotion of metastasis to regional lymph nodes by inducing tumor-associated lymphangiogenesis.Methods: Archived paraffin-embedded tissue specimens from 138 previously untreated patients of non-small-cell lung cancer who were underwent complete resection. Immumohistochemical staining for EGFR and VEGF-C. All the patients were followed up and got the whole related data. According to the patients'gender, age, smoking status, histologic type, T stage, lymph node status, clinical TNM stage, these specimens were divided into different groups. This study investigates the expressions of EGFR and VEGF-C in the 138 patients with the clinical parameters to analyse the relationship among these factors. It will be significant in providing the preliminary data for prognosis of NSCLC.Statistical analysis of data was performed using SPSS package version 11.5. The significance of associations was determined by means of the Pearson R test and/or Pearson chi-square tests. In survival analysis, Kaplan-Meier curves were derived and the statistical significance of the differences in survival was determined using the Log-rank test. P value of < 0.05 was identified as statistically significant.Results: 1. Expression of EGFR, VEGF-C in NSCLC. Of the patients, 62 (44.9%) patients were positive for EGFR expression, and 71 (51.4%) patients were positive for VEGF-C expression.2. Correlation between expression of EGFR or VEGF-C and clinicopathologic factors: For EGFR expression, significant correlations were demonstrated with smoking (p=0.039), histologic differentiation in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (p=0.025) and TNM stage (p= 0.001). The expression of EGFR-C was closely related with the group of gender (p=0.000), smoker (p= 0.039), lymph node metastasis (p=0.026), TNM stage (p=0.000).3. Correlations between the expression of EGFR and VEGF-C in patients with NSCLC: There were negative correlations between expression of EGFR and VEGF-C. Their correlation confidence was 0.519 (p>0.05).4. Prognostic impact of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 Expression: The relationship between prognosis of NSCLC and the different expression of EGFR, VEGF-C. The media survival was about 794.5d (range, 60-1094d). For EGFR, The expression of EGFR was not found closely related with prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (Log-rank=0.413, p>0.05). For VEGF-C expression group, we had found that the expressiong of VEGF-C was a significant prognostic factor for parients with NSCLC, it negatively related with progonosis (Log-rank=20.675, p<0.05).Conclusion: 1.The expression of EGFR and VEGF-C are closely related with non-small cell lung cancer.2. The expression of VEGF-C may be indicative of survival rates for patients of NSCLC. VEGF-C was negatively related with the prognosis of NSCLC.
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