Effects Of Different Methods Of TACE On Angiogenesis Of HCC

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate if different methods of transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) made different impacts on the angiogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods: We collected 136 tumor specimens which have been confirmed to be HCC by pathology from 136 patients. These tumors include 6 pathology types. 57 tumors came from patients who were treated only by surgery (group A), 11 tumors came from patients who were treated by transarterial chemoperfusion before surgery (group B), 68 tumors came from patients who were treated by TACE before surgery (group TACE). And the TACE included 3 methods: Iodinated Oil + chemotherapeutics 33 cases (group C), Iodinated Oil + chemotherapeutics + Gelatin Sponge 23 cases (group D), Iodinated Oil + chemotherapeutics + Gelatin Sponge + absolute alcohol 12 cases (group E). there were no significant differences in their clinicopathologic backgrounds with regard to age, gender, HbsAg, HCV, Child-Pugh grade, Okuda grade, AFP positive, number and size of tumor nodules, Edmondson grade, histological type, associated cirrhosis, cancerous embolus and extrahepatic metastasis of tumors and resection manner. The tumors of TACE were divided into 4 groups according to how long the patients have waited for from being treated by TACE to being treated by surgery. They are group a(≤30days, n=24), group b(31～60days, n=25), group c(61～90days, n=13), group d(＞90days, n=6). The pathological sections were stained by immunohistochemical method. The microvessels were marked by CD31. And the stained cells were counted under the light microscope.Result: Microvessels density(MVD): The averages of MVD in group TACE was significantly higher than that in group A(t=-2.897, P＜0.05). The difference of averages of MVD was not statistically significant between group A and group B (t=-0.057, P＞0.05). The differences of averages of MVD were not statistically significant between group C and group D (t=0.267, P＞0.05); group C and group E (t=0.567, P＞0.05); group D and group E (t=0.301, P＞0.05). The differences of averages of MVD were not statistically significant between group a and group A (t=-1.394, P＞0.05); group d and group A (t=-1.109, P＞0.05); The differences of averages were statistically significant between group b and group A (t=-2.058, P＜0.05); group c and group A (t=-2.186, P＜0.05). The expression of VEGF were statistically significantly different among group A, group B and group TACE (χ~2=12.629, P＜0.05). The expression of VEGF were not statistically significantly different among group C, group D and group E (χ~2=2.310, P＞0.05). MVD was well correlated to expression of VEGF in all pathological sections (r=0.445, P＜0.01).Conclusion: TACE promotes the expression of VEGF and the angiogenesis in HCC. The VEGF have a high-positive correlation to MVD. Different methods of TACE didn't made different impacts on angiogenesis of HCC and the expression of VEGF. The degree of angiogenesis may relate to how long the patients have waited for from being treated by TACE to being treated by surgery.