The Expression And Significance Of VEGF-C, Its Receptor FLT-4 In Breast Cancer

Objective: Breast cancer is a kind of malignant tumor which serious affects women's health. Recently it is the first leading incidence of malignant tumor in city women in China. The purpose of this study is to investgate the expression and significance of VEGF-C and its receptor FLT-4 (VEGFR-3) in breast cancer , and identify its relationship with clinicopathological factors in breast cancer , especially with lymph node metastasis, and analysis the correlation between VEGF-C and its receptor FLT-4,in order to provide the basis monitoring for breast cancer diagnosis, the early metastasizes.Methods: 1 45 surgically resected tumor specimens and 10 case normal tissues for immunohistochemistry between June 2006 and June 2008, from People's Hospital of Hebei Province, including invasive ductal carcinoma in 30 cases, invasive lobular carcinoma in 15 cases. According 2002 6th edition AJCC staging criteria,Ⅰperiod 9 cases,Ⅱperiod 14 cases,Ⅲperiod 22 cases. No pre-operative radiotherapy , chemotherapy and endocrine therapy, had a clear diagnosis of pathology. All the clinicalopathological information were collected. Immuno -histochemistry SP method was used to detect VEGF-C and its receptor FLT-4 protein expression, immunohistochemistry staining for two antibodies(VEGF-C,FLT-4) was performed on specimens obtained from the same block, semi-quantitative scoring method of the result evaluation were provided by Ohta Y, etc [1,2].2 SPSS13.0 software analysis system,χ2 test and Spearman rank correlation was used to compare the expression of differences with VEGF-C and its receptor FLT-4 protein in normal and breast cancer tissue ,and analyse the relationship the expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 protein with clinicopathology factors in breast cancer , especially with lymph node metastasis, P <0.05 as statistically significance.Results: 1 The expression of VEGF-C:1.1 The expression of VEGF-C in breast cancer and normal tissue: VEGF-C immunohistochemistry positive particles present the cytoplasm of breast cancer cells, The positive rate of VEGF-C in breast cancer was 60.00%( 27/45), significantly higher than normal tissue of the breast group 10.00%(1/10), the difference had statistically significance (P=0.01<0.05).1.2 The relationship between expression of VEGF-C and lymph node metastasis: The VEGF-C positive rate 31.58%(6/19)in lymph node-negative group was significantly lower than lymph node-positive group 80.77%(21/26), the difference had statistically significance (P=0.00<0.05).1.3 The relationship between expression of VEGF-C and pathological stage: The expression of VEGF-C had relationships with pathological stage, the later pathological stage, the higher the expression, the positive rates ofⅠ～Ⅱ,Ⅲperiod were 39.13%,81.82%, the difference had statistically significance (P = 0.0035 <0.05).1.4 The relationship between expression of VEGF-C and other clinicopathological factors: The expression of VEGF-C in breast cancer had no-relationship with age,tumor size,menopause status,pathological type,histology degree of differentiation and hormone receptor status, the difference had no statistically significance (P value were greater than 0.05).2 The expression of FLT-4:2.1 The expression of FLT-4 in breast cancer and normal tissue: FLT-4 was mainly expressed in cytoplasm of vascular endothelial cells of breast cancer and adjacent mesenchymal tissues. The positive rate of FLT-4 in breast cancer was 60.00%( 27/45), significantly higher than normal tissue of the breast group 00.00 %( 0 / 10 ) , the difference had statistically significance (P= 0.01<0.05).2.2 The relationship between expression of FLT-4 and lymph node metastasis: The FLT-4 positive rate 42.11%(8/19)in lymph node-negative group was significantly lower than lymph node-positive group 73.08%(19/26), the difference had statistically significance(P=0.03<0.05).2.3 The relationship between expression of FLT-4 and pathological stage: The expression of FLT-4 had relationships with pathological stage, the later pathological stage, the higher the expression, the positive rates ofⅠ～Ⅱ,Ⅲperiod were 43.48%,77.27%, the difference had statistical significance (P = 0.0207 <0.05).2.4 The relationship between expression of FLT-4 and other clinicopathological factors: The expression of FLT-4 in breast cancer had no-relationship with age,tumor size,menopause status,pathological type,histology degree of differentiation and hormone receptor status, the difference had no statistically significance (P value were greater than 0.05).3 The expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 had positive relationships(rs=0.29 P=0.03 < 0.05) , the difference had statistical significance .Conclusions: 1 The expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 in breast cancer tissues were significantly higher than normal breast tissues, and differences had statistically significance, and the expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 had positive relationships.2 In breast cancer, The expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 had relationships with lymph node metastasis: The expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 in lymph node-positive group were significantly higher than lymph node- negative group , the difference had statistical significance.3 In breast cancer,the expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 had relationships with pathological stage, the later pathological stage, the higher the expression.4 In breast cancer,the expression of VEGF-C,FLT-4 in breast cancer had no-relationship with age,tumor size, menopause status,pathological type,histology degree of differentiation and hormone receptor status, the difference had no statistically significance.