title: Correlation of vascular endothelial growth factor-C expression with tumor-infiltrating dendritic cells in gastric cancer.
abstract: It has been reported that dendritic cells (DCs) play a crucial role in the host's immune defense against tumors, and there is an inverse correlation between the density of DCs and the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). However, the relationship between the expression of VEGF-C and DC infiltration remained unclear. In the present study, we investigated whether the expression of VEGF-C correlated with the number of DCs in vivo. We immunohistochemically analyzed gastric carcinoma tissue in this study. The survival curves show that the prognosis for patients with a low density of DCs was significantly poorer than that for patients with high DC density (p < 0.01). Further, the survival curves according to the VEGF-C status showed that the survival rate in patients with low VEGF-C expression was higher than that in patients with higher expression (p < 0.01). There was a significant negative correlation between the density of DCs and the expression of VEGF-C (r = -0.26, p < 0.05). We suggest that VEGF-C produced by cancer causes DCs to become dysfunctional. This may be one of the ways that cancers evade immunosurveillance.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Surgery, Yamanashi Medical University, Yamanashi, Japan. takahashi@ruby.ocn.ne.jp
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Itakura
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Amemiya
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feng Tang
authors.forename: Hidehiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iizuka
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Yoshiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000737:chemistry*; D016228:Endothelial Growth Factors / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007564:Japan; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D016019:Survival Analysis; D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C
chemical_list: D016228:Endothelial Growth Factors; D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C