Clinicopathological significance of lymphatic vessel density marked by D2-40 and E-cadherin expression in non-small-cell lung cancer

The aim of our study is to investigate the relationship between lymphatic vessel density (LVD) marked by D2-40 and E-cadherin expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Immunohistochemical analysis was used to detect the expression of D2-40 and E-cadherin in 46 archival surgical specimens of human NSCLC and 10 cases of benign pulmonary disease. The LVD positively stained with D2-40 was observed and counted. The LVD was mainly distributed in the tumor borderline. The LVD in NSCLC tissues was significantly higher than in benign lesions (p < 0.001), and the LVD marked by D2-40 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001). The reduced expression of E-cadherin was present in NSCLC tissues. The positive rate of E-cadherin expression was negatively correlated with TNM stage (p = 0.027), pathological grade (p = 0.032), and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.014), and not significantly correlated with histologic classification (p = 0.714) in NSCLC tissues. A correlation analysis showed that high LVD marked by D2-40 was correlated with reduced E-cadherin expression in NSCLC tissues (t = 36.476, p < 0.001). The new monoclonal antibody D2-40 can specifically recognize lymphatic endothelial cells in NSCLC tissue. The relationship between LVD marked by D2-40 and the reduced expression of E-cadherin and lymph node metastasis in NSCLC was demonstrated. The detection of D2-40 and E-cadherin may be used as an indicator of lymph node metastasis in NSCLC.