Prognostic significance of lymphatic density and mircovessel vessel density in breast invasive ductal carcinoma / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate tumor lymphatic and mircovascular densities as prognostic markers in 69 cases of invasive breast cancer treated with partial or total mastectomy and lymph node dissection.Methods 69 cases of untreated primary unilateral invasive ductal breast carcinomas were selected.All cases were immunostained with D2-40 and CD31.Positively stained microvessels were counted in densely vascular/lymphatic foci (hot spots).The relationship between lymphatic vessel density (LVD),microvessel density(MVD) and prognosis was analyzed.Results The mean ± SD peritumoral lymphatic vessel density (P-LVD) was significantly higher than intratumoral LVD(I-LVD) (P ＜ 0.01).There was a positive correlation of D2-40 LVD(peritumoral) counts with lymph node metastasis (P =0.003) and clinical stage (P =0.026),and CD31 microvessel density was found significantly associated with clinical stage(P =0.038).No significant association was found between above variants with I-LVD (P ＞ 0.05).Univariate analysis showed that survival time was impaired by higher MVD and higher peritumoral LVD(P =0.007,P =0.008,P =0.014,P =0.024,log-rank test),but not I-LVD.Multivariate survival analysis showed that MVD,peritumoral LVD,TNM stage and lymph node metastasis were independent prognostic factors for overall survival.Conclusions Peritumoral LVD and MVD were significantly correlated with survival status of patients with breast cancer.This is the first attempt to predict prognosis of breast cancer patients by quantifying the peritumoral LVD and MVD.