[Effects of vascular endothelial growth factor in the invasion and metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer].
BACKGROUND
To study the effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the invasion and metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).


METHODS
The expression of VEGF and the microvascular count (MVC) were determined in 65 cases of NSCLC by immunohistochemistry method.


RESULTS
The positive rate of VEGF expression was 83.1%(54/65) in 65 cases of NSCLC. The microvascular count in patients with metastasis was significantly higher than that without metastasis (58.90±31.45 vs 21.44±12.77,P<0.01). The microvascular count in patients with stage I-II was significantly lower than that of stage III disease(19.53±16.27 vs 60.24±28.29, P<0.01). The positive rate of VEGF expression was remarkably higher in patients with metastasis(100%,44/44) and in stage III disease (100%, 29/29) than that in patients without metastasis(47.6%, 10/21) and in stageI-II disease (69.4%, 25/36)(P<0.01). VEGF expression was closely related to MVC, but not to histological types and the size of tumor (P>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that VEGF may play an important role in the invasion and metastasis of NSCLC, and detection of VEGF expression and MVC might be helpful to judge the metastasis of NSCLC and to predict the prognosis of patients with NSCLC.
Department of Thoracocardiac Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038,P.R.China.
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C
Shen
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S
Fan
Y
Y
Jiang
J
J
Chen
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Z
Li