The prognostic value of vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs)-A and -B and their receptor, VEGFR-1, in invasive breast carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Vascular endothelial growth factors A and B (VEGF-A and VEGF-B) play a major role in angiogenesis and activate VEGF receptor 1 (VEGFR-1). However, the clinicopathologic and clinical value of VEGF-B and VEGFR-1 in invasive breast carcinoma remains unclear.


METHODS
We immunohistochemically examined the expression pattern of VEGF-A, VEGF-B and VEGFR-1 in 177 invasive breast carcinomas in relation to clinicopathological parameters, p53, c-erbB2 proteins expression and patients' survival.


RESULTS
VEGF-A, VEGF-B and VEGFR-1 were immunodetected predominantly in the cytoplasm of the malignant cells. None of the studied markers correlated with any of the clinicopathological parameters, other than stromal VEGFR-1 which inversely correlated with PR (p=0.021). Cancerous VEGF-A and stromal VEGFR-1 were positively related to p53 (p=0.016 and p=0.033, respectively). Cancerous VEGF-B was positively associated with c-erbB-2 (p=0.045) and was found to exert an unfavorable impact on both disease-free and the overall survival of the node-positive patients (p=0.05 and p=0.029, respectively). Cancerous VEGFR-1 was recognized as being an independent poor prognostic indicator (p=0.037).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that, while VEGF-B seems to be useful as a prognostic indicator only in node-positive patients, VEGFR-1 may be an independent poor prognosticator in patients with invasive breast carcinoma.
Mylona
Eleni
E
Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 75 Mikras Asias Str., Goudi, GR-11527 Athens, Greece.
Alexandrou
Paraskevi
P
Giannopoulou
Ioanna
I
Liapis
George
G
Sofia
Markaki
M
Keramopoulos
Antonios
A
Nakopoulou
Lydia
L
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D042561:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor B / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D040281:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-1 / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D042561:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor B; D040281:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-1; C495901:TP53 protein, human; C467484:VEGFA protein, human; C467485:VEGFB protein, human