title: Clinical significance of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 expression in non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: The relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C)/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR-3) expression and clinicopathologic features of the patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was investigated. The expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 was assessed in 65 patients with NSCLC by immunohistochemistry. The significance of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 expression was analyzed statistically. The results showed that VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 were highly expressed in cytoplasm and membrane in lung cancer tissues with the positive rate being 55.4 % and 52.3 % respectively, while there was no expression in the normal lung tissues. The expression of VEGF-C was significantly increased in adenocacinoma as compared to other types of NSCLC (P<0.05). The VEGFR-3 expression was closely related with lymph node metastasis (P<0.01) and TNM stage (P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between the VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 expression in NSCLC patients (r=0.658, P<0.01). It is suggested that VEGFR-3 plays an important role in the lymphatic metastasis of NSCLC. The interaction between VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 may be deeply involved in the mechanism of lung cancer metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Tiecheng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C / Q000378:metabolism*; D040321:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-3 / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D042582:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C; D040321:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-3