Relationship Between Expression Of VEGF-C And Lymph Nodes Micrometastasis In Human NSCLC

Objective (1) To investigate the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) in Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) ;(2) To investigate the expression of cytoketatin19 (CK19) and mucin1 (MUC1) in the lymph nodes of NSCLC;(3) To investigate the relationship between the expression of VEGF-C and the lymphatic metastasis in NSCLC ;(4) To investigate the relationship between the expression of VEGF-C and the lymphatic micrometastasis in NSCLC. To explored the correlation between these factors, clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. It can provide the theory's evidence for the diagnosis and therapy of lung cancer, and it also can supply new thinking and method for finding new target-sites in the tumor targeted therapy. Method: Select 67 samples of NSCLC, 132 samples of lymph-node,24 noncancerous tissue samples and 20 samples of lymph-node which were obtained from patients who have received surgery therapy at the thoracic and cardiovascular department in the first people's hospital in Yun Nan provience. The expression of VEGF-C and CK19, MUC1 in selected samples were detected by using immunohistochemistry S-P method, and the relative factors with VEGF-C and CK19, MUC1 expression in NSCLC and lymph-node were analyzed with statistics method.Result: 1. In 67 cases of NSCLC, 74.63% (50/67) cases expressed VEGF-C; VEGF-C expression was observed in the cytoplasm of cancer cells. No staining was observed in normal pulmonary alveolus. The expression of VEGF-C in NSCLC and normal pulmonary alveolus was significant differently. A significant difference was found which VEGF-C expressed more in NSCLC cancer cells than in normal cells.The expression of VEGF-C was found in lymph vessels. Only 12.50% (3/24) normal pulmonary tissues expressed VEGF-C. 2. The expression of VEGF-C was more frequently found in tumors with lymph node metastasis than in those without it. In the examined NSCLC, the expression of VEGF-C was statistics significance in the different degrees of the differentiation of tumor cells. The expression of VEGF-C was not correlated with age and histology. The LMVD (Lymphatic Microvessel Density) of the tumors was related with the expression of VEGF-C in NSCLC. It was related with lymph-nodes metastasis, TNM and was not related with histology, sex and age. 3. In 67 cases of NSCLC, 77.61% (52/67) cases expressed CK19 and 64.18% (43/67) cases expressed MUC1. The expression of CK19 and MUC1 was observed in all the membrane and cytoplasm of cancer cells. The position where cancer cell growed as nest was observed CK19 and MUC1 expressed in yellow. The expression of CK19 and MUC1 was clear in metastasis lymph nodes. The detection of both MUC1 and CK19 might be helpful to diagnose NSCLC micrometastasis in lymph nodes which pathology diagnosis was negative. 4. Immunohistochemistry was more sensible than pathology diagnosis on searching CK19 and MUC1 protein in lymph nodes, through it could find lymph nodes metastasis. 5. There are relationship between lymph nodes metastasis, the positive expression of VEGF-C in NSCLC and the density of lymph vessel in para-cancer. Conclusion: 1. The overexpression of VEGF-C in NSCLC was related with the cell growth and differentiation of NSCLC. 2. The lymphatic vessels existed in the stroma of NSCLC. The expression of VEGF-C was related with LMVD and lymphatic nodes metastasis. 3. The immunohistochemical staging of CK19 and MUC1 were used to detect the micrometastasis in tumor cells.Through detecting CK19 and MUC1, we can find some positive regional lymph nodes indicated to be tumor free by conventional histopathologic method. 4. The overexpression of VEGF-C in NSCLC tissues was significantly related with the expression of CK19 and MUC1 in regional lymph nodes. 5. The expression of VEGF-C was related with the clinical stage of NSCLC.