Expression And Significance Of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) And Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) In Gastric Cancer

Objective:To investigate whether expression of EGFR and VEGF in tumor tissues are related to clinicopathologic parameters,prognostic assessment and identification of patients treated with tailored therapies in gastric cancer.Method:Determination of VEGF and EGFR in 51 gastric cancer samples as well as 20 normal gastric mucosa specimens from non-cancer patients was performed by immunohistochemical staining.The correlation of VEGF and EGFR expression with the clinicopathologic parameters was investigated in 51 patients undergoing potentially curative surgery.Results:The positive rate of EGFR and VEGF expression was significantly higher in gastric cancer samples than in normal mucosa specimens(respectively 64.7%vs 0%, 58.8%vs 10%,P＜0.01).The positive expression of EGFR and VEGF were significantly higher in poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas,Distant metastasis,Vascular-lymphatic invasion,pT3/T4,LNM,and TNM-Ⅲ/Ⅳ(P＜0.01 and＜0.05).Nearly 69.7%of EGFR positive tumors was stained for VEGF positive in the meantime.Curatively treated gastric cancers showed a significant lower VEGF and EGFR expression rate than noncuratively treated gastric cancers.Conelutions:EGFR and VEGF expression up-regulation in gastric tumor tissues was significantly related to cell differentiation,depth of invasion,Vascular-lymphatic invasion,LNM and TNM stage.EGFR may be implicated in gastric cancer growth and angiogenesis through up-regulation of VEGF.These findings provide evidence that contemporary evaluation of VEGF and EGFR expression may be crucial prognostic parameters to identification of patients in same TNM stage who may benefit of tailored target treatments.