Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Expression in Oral Cancer and its Correlation with Clinico-Pathological Parameters-A Prospective Study

BACKGROUND Angiogenesis is essential for solid tumour growth and metastasis. VEGF is considered as a surrogate marker of angiogenesis and is a key mediator of hematogenous and lymphatic spread. VEGF may also have a correlation with clinico-pathological parameters. We wanted to study the relation of VEGF expression in oral cancer with clinico-pathological parameters. METHODS This is a cross sectional study of 40 patients of oral cancer conducted at a tertiary care cancer center. The patients underwent complete clinical and radiological assessment along with biopsy before starting treatment. The clinico-pathological parameters of the patients were recorded. VEGF expression was evaluated in the biopsy tissues using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and VEGF score was calculated. It is then correlated with clinico-pathological parameters like age, site of tumour, addictive habits, nodal status, mandibular invasion, stage and grade of the tumour. RESULTS It is found that VEGF expression was not related to the site of tumour, age and addictive habits of the patients. VEGF expression increased with the stage of the tumour. Patients with mandible involvement and nodal involvement had significantly higher VEGF expression with p value of 0.035 and 0.0001 respectively. VEGF expression was less in well differentiated as compared to poorly differentiated tumours (p=0.043). CONCLUSIONS VEGF expression increased with stage, nodal involvement and the grade of tumour.