title: Morphometric study of tumor angiogenesis as a new prognostic factor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.
abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the possible prognostic significance of tumor angiogenesis (TA) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Fifty-five NPC patients were evaluated in relation to survival. Endothelial cells were immunohistochemically stained with anti-von Willebrand factor (F-VIII), CD-31 and CD-34 antibodies, and microvessels counted in the most active areas of tumor neovascularization or hotspotsusing both a manual and an automatic method. Overall survival analysis calculated by the Kaplan Meiertest revealed that both methods were correlated with a statistical significance between intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) and overall survival, using either manual (p=0.0141) or automatic counting (p=0.0117). Other angiogenic parameters studied were perimeter, roundness and accumulative area of the microvessels using a morphometric analyzer. Moreover, our results show that cases with high IMD demonstrated a prognostic significance in relation to the accumulative area (p=0.0072).
authors.affiliation: Medical School of Valencia University, Service of Pathology II, University Hospital La Fe Avda. Campanar 21, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rubio
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Burgos
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morera
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Vera-Sempere
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018952:Antigens, CD34 / Q000032:analysis; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000401:mortality; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000401:mortality; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000032:analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D018952:Antigens, CD34; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1; D014841:von Willebrand Factor