Association between VEGF-C expression and clinical significance in Chinese breast cancer patients：a Meta-analysis / 国际检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To systematically evaluate the association between vascular endothelial grow th factor‐C (VEGF‐C) ex‐pression in breast cancer tissue and clinical significance in the domestic patients with breast cancer by a Meta‐analysis .Methods The published case controlled trials on the VEGF‐C expression and the clinical manifestations of breast cancer were retrieved from the CNKI ,CBM ,VIP and Wanfang databases ,and other relevant journals were also manually retrieved to identify all the relevant case controlled trials .The retrieval year limit was from the database establishment to June 2014 .The included literatures were screened according to the inclusion and exclusion standards and the quality of included case controlled trials was assessed .The Rev‐Man 5 .2 software was used to conduct the Meta analysis .Results A total of 15 case controlled trials involving 975 patients with breast cancer were included .The Meta analysis results revealed that there were statistical differences in the VEGF‐C expression be‐tween the breast cancer group and the control group[OR = 8 .16 ,95% CI(5 .77 ,11 .54)] ,between the lymph node metastasis posi‐tive group and the non‐lymph node metastasis negative group[OR = 5 .19 ,95% CI(3 .63 ,7 .44)] and between the clinical stage Ⅰ -Ⅱ group and the stage Ⅲ - Ⅳ group[OR = 0 .35 ,95% CI(0 .21 ,0 .59)] ;the difference in the VEGF‐C expression between the 0 - <50 years group and the ≥ 50 years group had no statistical significance ,indicating that the VEGF‐C expression had no obvious as‐sociation with the patient′s age .Conclusion The present evidences reveal that VEGF‐C maybe participate in the development and progression process of lymph node metastasis of breast cancer and may be become an important factor influencing the prognosis of breast cancer .