Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C and Microvessel Density in Gastric Carcinoma: Correlation With Clinicopathological Factors. Our Experience and Review of the Literature

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been reported to promote lymphangiogenesis and its overexpression may be related to lymph node metastasis in gastric carcinoma. Microvessel density (MVD) has been investigated as a promoting factor for angiogenesis with conflicting results about its relation to survival. The study aims to investigate the expression of one subtype of VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C), and MVD in gastric carcinoma specimens and their relation with clinicopathological factors. Specimens from 72 patients who underwent gastric resection for gastric carcinoma were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for the VEGF-C study and by monoclonal antibodies for the study of MVD. The VEGF-C and MVD expressions were related to clinicopathological features. High MVD was significantly related to the T stage (p = 0.036); VEGF-C expression was significantly higher in N positive patients (p = 0.047). No relation was found between MVD and VEGF-C expression. An extensive review of the literature was made and data were compared to ours. VEGF-C and MVD resulted to have significant relation with clinicopathological features. Further studies are required to determine whether these factors may be used in clinical practice in order to define the relationship with prognosis and to better characterize the biologic features of gastric carcinoma.