Evaluation of blood flow in pancreatic ductal carcinoma using contrast-enhanced, wide-band Doppler ultrasonography: correlation with tumor characteristics and vascular endothelial growth factor.
OBJECTIVE
Tumor vascularization has been attracting attention. However, there have been only a few reports on tumor vascularization in pancreatic ductal carcinoma, especially on vascularization depicted by imaging modalities. We investigated the relationship among wide-band Doppler signals, clinicopathological factors, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression.


METHODS
Sixty-nine patients with pancreatic ductal carcinoma were investigated. The vascular signals from carcinoma lesions were assessed by contrast-enhanced, wide-band Doppler ultrasonography (dynamic flow). VEGF expression was quantitated by enzyme immunoassay for 28 patients. Depending on the intensity of the signals, the patients were classified into type A (definite vascular signal) or type B (almost no vascular signal).


RESULTS
Type A patients and type B patients accounted for 65% and 35% of patients, respectively. According to multivariate analysis of vascular signal type and clinicopathological factors, liver metastasis occurred significantly more frequently in the type A group. VEGF expression was also significantly higher in the type A group than in the type B group.


CONCLUSIONS
Dynamic flow has very high sensitivity for detecting the vascular signals from pancreatic ductal carcinoma. The quantity of vascular signals correlated with tumor characteristics and VEGF.
Ohshima
Tadashi
T
Department of Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan. ohshima@ah.wakwak.com
Yamaguchi
Taketo
T
Ishihara
Takeshi
T
Yoshikawa
Masaharu
M
Kobayashi
Akitoshi
A
Sakaue
Nobuyuki
N
Baba
Takeshi
T
Yamada
Syuji
S
Saisho
Hiromitsu
H
D021441:Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler / Q000379:methods*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism*
D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A