title: Preliminary study of correlations between the intratumoral microvessel density and the morphological profile of colorectal carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  New blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) is a fundamental event in the process of tumor growth and metastatic dissemination. The aim was to evaluate intratumoral vascular density (ITMVD) and to analyze possible correlations between ITMVD and the morphological profile of colorectal carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  The studied group consisted of 50 patients that underwent surgery for colorectal tumors, 12 of them receiving preoperatory radiotherapy. The analyzed morphological parameters were tumor site, tumor gross aspect, tumor longitudinal and transverse diameter, tumor grading, local invasion (pT), regional invasion (pN), distant metastases (pM) and intratumoral microvessel density (ITMVD) expressed as number of capillaries÷mm². The malignant tissue samples were included in paraffin blocks and serial tissue sections were cut both for Hematoxylin-Eosin staining and CD34 immunomarking. For each case, five consecutive fields without necrosis were randomly selected with ×10 objective. Quantitative measurements were performed using special software for image analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For non-irradiated colorectal tumors, ITMVD was the highest in rectal localization, in infiltrative tumors, in circumferential tumors, in tumors with low longitudinal extension, in moderately differentiated (G2) tumors and in pT4, pN0 and pM1 tumors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Correlations showed different trends of ITMVD depending on each parameter: ITMVD was higher when the tumor was closer to the rectum, when it was more infiltrative, more circumferential or with low longitudinal diameter. These trends might be exploited in defining future anti-angiogenic therapeutic strategies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were some interesting correlations between ITMVD and studied morphological parameters that have to be validated on larger series of cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Romania; ssmogo@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Theodor Viorel
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Dumitrescu
authors.forename: Constantin Daniel
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Uscatu
authors.forename: Stelian Ştefăniţă
authors.initials: SŞ
authors.lastname: Mogoantă
authors.forename: Dragoş Ovidiu
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Alexandru
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dumitrescu
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schenker
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meşină
authors.forename: Elena Raluca
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Nicoli
authors.forename: Dan Ionuţ
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Gheonea
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vasile
authors.forename: Iancu Emil
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Pleşea
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018952:Antigens, CD34 / Q000378:metabolism; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation; D055806:Microvessels / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D018952:Antigens, CD34