title: Lymphangiogenesis in early and advanced gastric cancer: is there any difference?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gastric cancer (GC) in Poland is on the third place of men's mortality and on the fifth place of women's mortality in malignant neoplasms, and the percentage of diagnosed early GC is less than 20%. In this study, the relationship among lymphatic vessel density, marked with D2-40, expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C/D, VEGF receptor 3 VEGFR-3, and the stage of GC patient were investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study examined the relationships between the peritumoral lymphatic vessels (PTL) density and intratumoral lymphatic vessels (ITL) density stained immunohistochemically with D2-40/podoplanin, the expression of VEGF-C/D and VEGFR-3, and the stage of 58 GC patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lymphatic vessel density measured by D2-40 decreases outside the tumor (PTL) and increases within the tumor (ITL) as the staging grows from I to III, whereas in the case of patients belonging to stage IV group, lymphatic vessel density decreases outside the tumor as well as within the tumor in comparison with the stage III group (not statistically significant). We observed a difference between morphology of the vessels within the tumor (ITLs) and vessels that are located outside the tumor (PTLs). PTLs were enlarged and unsqueezed as opposed to ITLs, which were collapsed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  (i) There is no significant correlation between the density of ITL nor PTL marked with D2-40 and the stage of GC. (ii) We did not observe relationship between expression of VEGF-C/D and VEGFR-3 and the stage of GC. (iii) Further studies are needed to fully determine the role of PTL and ITL.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of General and Oncological Surgery, Wrocław Medical University, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudno-Rudzińska
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donizy
authors.forename: Ewelina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frejlich
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kotulski
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dzięgiel
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hałoń
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kielan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D058846:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D042583:Lymphangiogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D040321:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-3 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D058846:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; C500987:monoclonal antibody D2-40; D040321:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-3
keywords: D2-40; VEGF-C; VEGF-D; advanced and early gastric cancer; lymphangiogenesis