Relationshp Between LVD, MVD And Clinicopathological Characte Ristics, Prognosis Of Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVE: To detect the expressions of micro lymph-vessel density(LVD) and microvessel density (MVD) in breast cancer tissues, investigate therelationship between LVD, MVD and clinical pathological features of breastcancer，and its impact on breast cancer prognosis.METHODS: Selecting a total of237cases of breast cancer patients from1January2004to31December2006in Tumor Hospital of Guangxi MedicalUniversity; All patients were pathologically proven for breast cancer, and allhave complete clinical data (including ER, PR, HER-2immunohistochemicalresults) and follow-up data. By adopting CD34marker of vascular endothelialcells and D2-40marker of lymphatic endothelial cells, breast cancer LVD andMVD were counted separately under a microscope. Use statistical methods toanalyze the relationship between expressions of LVD, MVD and clinicalpathological features also to analyze the relationship between expressions ofLVD, MVD and the prognosis of breast cancer patients.RESULTS:①From the breast cancer tissues, the average value of LVDwas4.20±4.63, with a median of3.8; mean MVD value was63.15±23.54,with a median of61.②The LVD for the expression+++group,++group and -/+group of HER-2were5.38±3.81,4.84±3.11,3.81±3.62,respectively. Thedifference between+++group and-/+group was statistically significant(P=0.015), and there were no difference among++group,+++group and-/+group（P=0.216、0.138,respectively）; the expression of LVD of the lymph nodemetastasis groups were higher than the non-metastatic groups,the average valuewere4.64±3.82,3.54±3.22,respectively, and the difference was statisticallysignificant (P=0.022).③There were no relationship between patients’ age,clinical stage, T stage, N stage, M stage, independent of ER status, PRstatus,menopause, pathological type and LVD value, the difference was notstatistically significant (P>0.05).④The MVD for the expression+++group,++group and-/+group of HER-2were73.26±29.40,61.89±26.89,61.50±21.04, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.032), and the expressionof MVD of the+++group were higher than the-/+group and the++group（P=0.01、0.043,respectively）.There were no relationship between patients’age,clinical stage, T stage, N stage, M stage, independent of ER status, PR status,menopause, pathological type and MVD value, the difference was notstatistically significant (P>0.05).⑤Univariate analysis depicted that there wasno difference in survival between low-density LVD group and high-densitygroup (P>0.05), and there was no difference in survival between low-densityMVD group and high-density group (P>0.05).There were no relationshipbetween patients’ age, independent of ER status, PR status and HER-2status,menopause, pathological type, surgical approach, chemotherapy, radiotherapyand the breast cancer patients’ survival (P>0.05).But clinical stage, T stage andlymph node metastasis were associated with the breast cancer patients’ survival(P<0.05).CONCLUSION:①The micro lymphangiogenesis of cancer is in close relation with lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.②The expression of LVDand MVD are related to HER-2expression in breast cancer, suggesting thatoverexpression of HER-2may play an important role in the lymphovascular andmicrovascular formationin in breast cancer.③There were no relationshipbetween LVD, MVD and patients’ age, clinical stage, T stage, M stage, lymphnode metastasis, independent of ER status, PR status, menopause, pathologicaltype.④This study found no effect of LVD,MVD in patients with OS, but theconclusion needs further prospective randomized studies confirmed.