title: Overexpression of vascular adhesion protein-1 is associated with poor prognosis of astrocytomas.
abstract: Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) is one of the endothelial adhesion molecules that is believed to play a role in tumor progression and metastasis, supporting cancer cell extravasation. Very few studies have been performed on analyzing the contribution of VAP-1 in brain tumor. Astrocytomas are the most common type of brain tumors, which are classified by World Health Organization (WHO) into four grades according to the degree of malignancy. This study was designed to investigate VAP-1 expression level in different astrocytoma grades and its correlation with clinicopathological features as well as prognosis of astrocytoma patients. Eighty-seven patients with different grades of astrocytoma (WHO Grade I-Grade IV) were enrolled in this study. The expression of VAP-1 was assayed by immunohistochemistry. The correlation between VAP-1 expression and clinicopathological features was evaluated by Chi-square test, and overall survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was applied to analyze the independent influence of each parameter on overall survival. The expression level of VAP-1 was significantly higher in diffuse astrocytoma than those of pilocytic astrocytoma (p < 0.0001). In the subgroup analysis, upregulated VAP-1 expression was frequently found in older age patients (≥50 years). The VAP-1 expression was found to be significantly correlated with the overall survival (p = 0.0002). There was a statistical correlation between VAP-1(high) tumors in diffuse astrocytoma and VAP-1(low) tumors in pilocytic astrocytoma (p < 0.0001). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated VAP-1 was an independent predictive marker for poorer prognosis (p = 0.0036). Therefore, VAP-1 could be a promising prognostic biomarker in astrocytoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kostoro
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-Jyuan
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yen-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Clark Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chun-Chieh
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.|Department of Pathology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.|Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chee-Yin
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.|Department of Neurosurgery, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.|Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Aij-Lie
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Kwan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006631:Amine Oxidase (Copper-Containing) / Q000032:analysis*; D001254:Astrocytoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C076668:AOC3 protein, human; D006631:Amine Oxidase (Copper-Containing)
keywords: Astrocytoma; VAP-1; glioma; immunohistochemical; vascular adhesion protein-1