title: Prognostic role of angiogenesis in operable carcinoma of the gallbladder.
abstract: The prognostic significance of intratumoral angiogenesis was investigated in 62 patients with stage I-III carcinomas of the gallbladder treated with simple cholecystectomy. Microvessel density (MVD) was assessed immunohistochemically, using the alkaline phosphatase/anti-alkaline phosphatase method and the monoclonal antibody CD31. The mean MVD was 30.5 vessels per x 200 optical field. Using the thirty-third and the sixty-sixth percentile, the patients were grouped into three MVD categories: low (MVD 9-18; 20 patients), medium (MVD 19-31; 20 patients), and high (MVD 32-86; 22 patients). A high MVD was more frequent in well-differentiated adenocarcinomas compared with moderately and poorly differentiated tumors (p = 0.04), but there was no statistically significant association between MVD and T stage, or patients' age or sex. Multivariate analysis, including MVD, T stage, and histologic grade, showed that MVD was a significant independent prognostic factor in carcinomas of the gallbladder (p = 0.001, t ratio 3.3). It is believed that the assessment of intratumoral angiogenesis in patients with operable gallbladder carcinomas may be useful in predicting prognosis and, perhaps, in decision making for postoperative adjuvant treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Democritus University of Thrace, General Hospital Alexandroupolis, P.O. Box 12, Alexandroupolis 68100, Greece.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giatromanolaki
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sivridis
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Koukourakis
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Polychronidis
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Simopoulos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002763:Cholecystectomy; D005260:Female; D005706:Gallbladder Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1