title: Expression of cluster of differentiation 34 and vascular endothelial growth factor in breast cancer, and their prognostic significance.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of cluster of differentiation (CD) 34 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in breast cancer tissue, and their prognostic significance. High CD34 expression levels (microvessel density, >15/HPF) were identified in 27.3% (12/44) of cases, exhibiting no significant correlation with the clinicopathological characteristics of the patients. However, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that the survival time of patients with high CD34 expression was significantly shorter than that of patients with low CD34 expression (50.0 vs. 90.6%; P=0.003). Samples with high VEGF expression levels (++ or +++) accounted for 63.6% (28/44) of the total number of cases. High VEGF expression was significantly prevalent in patients aged ≥50 years compared with patients aged <50 years (≤78.6 vs. 37.5%; P=0.006). Furthermore, all patients with vascular invasion exhibited high VEGF expression levels; thus, patients with vascular invasion presented with significantly higher VEGF expression rates compared with patients with no vascular invasion (100.0 vs. 55.6%; P=0.018). However, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that high VEGF expression was not correlated with the overall survival of the patients (P=0.366). By contrast, Cox multivariate analysis identified that clinical stage, triple-negative subtype and age were independent prognostic factors for patients with breast cancer (P=0.005, P=0.006 and P=0.032, respectively), and that CD34 expression was a potential independent prognostic factor (P=0.055). Therefore, the present study determined that for patients with breast cancer, a high level of CD34 expression may be a potential indicator of a poor prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhanhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shenhua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Weizhen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: G U
authors.initials: GU
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Technology Research on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thoracic Cancer, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310022, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaojia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: breast cancer; clinicopathological factors; cluster of differentiation 34; immunohistochemistry; vascular endothelial growth factor