title: Reduced vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI) expression is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer patients.
abstract: Vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI) is a novel anti-angiogenic cytokine that belongs to the tumour necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily. Very little is known about the significance of VEGI in cancer. Our study analysed VEGI expression in relation to breast cancer patient clinical parameters. The VEGI expression profile was assessed qualitatively (RT-PCR), quantitatively (real-time Quantitative-PCR), and immuno-histochemically (IHC), in a panel of 24 human normal and cancer cell lines and in a cohort of 151 mammary tissue samples (n = 33 normal breast tissue; n = 118 breast cancer tissue) with a 6-year median follow-up. Patients who had died of breast cancer or had local recurrence of the disease expressed significantly lower levels of VEGI in comparison to the elevated levels in the disease free patients. High levels of VEGI were associated with an increased chance of patient survival. Importantly, patients with breast tumours expressing reduced levels of VEGI had a poorer prognosis than those patients expressing high levels of VEGI. However, no significant correlations were observed between VEGI expression and tumour grade, TNM classification, or nodal involvement. In conclusion, VEGI is aberrantly expressed in human breast cancer tissues. VEGI displays prognostic relevance as breast cancer patients with an overall poor prognosis express significantly lower levels of VEGI compared to those with a favourable prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Wales College of Medicine, Metastasis and Angiogenesis Research Group, Cardiff University, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14-4XN, UK. parrc@cf.ac.uk
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parr
authors.forename: Chun H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.forename: Wen G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016019:Survival Analysis; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A