The relationship between apoptosis, VEGF, lymph node metastasis and prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship between apoptcsis, expressions of VEGF and clinicopathological characteris- tics, and prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods Sixty-one surgical specimens of primary esophageal squa- mous cell carcinomas were examined for VEGF by immunohistochemical staining (S-P). Apoptcsis was determined by TUNEL (TdT media- ting dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling) method. Clinicopathologic features were examined by histopathology. The prognostic impacts of these pa- rameters were analyzed by univariate and survival analysis. Results AI and VEGF were well correlated with differentiation, TNM stage. Lower tumor differentiation and higher TNM stage were related to decreasing AI and VEGF. In addition, VEGF in the groups of invasion be- yond muscularis and lymph node metastasis is significant higher than that in invasion reaching muacularis and no lymph node metastasis (P <0.01). But there were no significant correlation between AI and invasion( P>0.05). The simple-factor analysis results showed that the decrease of AI, VEGF, lymph node metastases, lower tumor differentiation, and invasion reaching muscularis were related to decrease of sur- vival rate. However, multivariate Cox analysis demonstrated that only AI and VEGF were the significant prognostic factors. Conclusions Apoptosis and angiagenesis participate in ESCC and promote its growth. VEGF is related to angiogenesis of ESCC. The increase of VEGF may promote invasion and lymph node metastasis. AI and VEGF are significant prognostic factors in ESCC.