Clinicopathological features of hepatocellular carcinoma evaluated by vascular endothelial growth factor expression.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the significance of the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its correlation with clinicopathological variables were studied in the tissue of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and surrounding liver.


METHODS
In 56 samples (tumor and non-tumor liver tissue) collected from 28 patients, VEGF expression was examined by immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis.


RESULTS
The value of VEGF expression by western blotting was correlated with immunohistochemical staining grade. In tumor tissue, the value of VEGF expression correlated with tumor size (P = 0.034), á-fetoprotein (P = 0.036) and protein induced by vitamin K absence-II by simple regression, and histological grade (P = 0.0132) by the unpaired t-test. The level of VEGF expression in non-tumor liver was found to correlate with the value of serum albumin (P = 0.008), cholinesterase (P = 0.012) and prothrombin activity (P = 0.046). The frequency of simple nodular type in gross appearance decreased in cases with high tumor/non-tumor (T/N) ratio (P = 0.022), and the degree of portal vein invasion progressed with an increase in the T/N ratio (P = 0.008). The T/N ratio was significantly higher in early recurrence cases (P = 0.0081).


CONCLUSIONS
This study on the expression of VEGF might be useful to estimate the liver condition and the clinicopathological features of HCC.
Amaoka
Nozomi
N
Surgical Oncology, Gifu University School of Medicine, Yanagido, Gifu City, Japan.
Osada
Shinji
S
Kanematsu
Masayuki
M
Imai
Hisashi
H
Tomita
Hiroyuki
H
Tokuyama
Yasuharu
Y
Sakashita
Fumio
F
Nonaka
Kennichi
K
Goshima
Satoshi
S
Kondo
Hiroshi
H
Adachi
Yosuke
Y
D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism*
C467484:VEGFA protein, human; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A