title: Expression and prognostic significance of VEGFR-2 in breast cancer.
abstract: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women in the world. Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) was not only found to play a key role in the development of tumor angiogenesis, but has also been located in tumor cells of a variety of tumors. This study investigated the expression pattern of VEGFR-2 in breast cancer tissue specimens in order to evaluate the role of VEGFR-2 in the prognosis of breast cancer. Expression and localization of VEGFR-2 in tumor cells of breast cancer specimens from 98 invasive breast cancer patients were determined by immunohistochemistry. The relationships between VEGFR-2 expression and clinicopathological features were also analyzed. The results showed that VEGFR-2 expression correlated positively with lymph node (LN) metastasis of breast cancer. Patients with high expression of VEGFR-2 had a significantly worse OS. It was also observed that the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker, including Twist1 and Vimentin, was higher in the tumors with higher VEGFR-2 expression, while the E-cadherin expression was lower in the same tumors, suggesting that VEGFR-2 may serve as a possible mediator of EMT in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan, China.
authors.forename: Ji-Dong
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: High-Throughput Molecular Drug Discovery Center, Tianjin Joint Academy of Biotechnology and Medicine, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Yanrong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan, China. Electronic address: zhiyongzhang2015@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhi-Yong
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mammary Surgery, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan, China.
authors.forename: Guang-Yin
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Heng
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan, China.
authors.forename: Li-Yun
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan, China.
authors.forename: Yue-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D040301:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2 / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C000588866:KDR protein, human; D040301:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-2
keywords: Breast cancer; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT); Metastasis; VEGFR-2