Purpose: Angiogenesis occurs in response to tissue damage, and vitally important for tumor growth and metastasis. In several tumors, including hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most potent tumor angiogenetic factors. This study was planned to evaluate the correlation between the expression patterns of VEGF and the clinicopathological features of patients with small HCC.
Methods: Twenty patients, who underwent curative partial hepatectomy from May 2000 to December 2003, were included in this study. Western blotting was used in order to observe the expression patterns of VEGF, and was performed on tissues acquired from tumor mass and non-tumor region resected specimens, using monoclonal mouse lgG (Santa Cruz, CA, USA) as a primary antibody. To determine the VEGF expression patterns, the tumor/ non-tumor ratio (T/N) of the expression level was calculated, and compared and analyzed with respect to the clinicopathological features of the patients.
Results: There were 19 males and 1 female, with an average age of 46.6 years. The average tumor size and T/N ratio were 2.4 cm and 1.077, respectively. Clinicopathological factors had no significances on the expression of VEGF. There were significantly higher disease free survival rates in patients with a T/N ratio ≥ 0.8 (P=0.0004).
Conclusion: These results suggest that the expression of VEGF in HCC cells, by itself, may be a significant factor in the recurrence prognosis of small HCC. Higher VEGF expressions in non-tumor tissues seem to be correlated with higher recurrence rates of HCC.
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