Expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor D and its receptor Flt-4 in human pancreatic cancer and their significance / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor D (VEGF-D) and its receptor fms-like tyrosine kinase-4 (Flt-4) and to determine whether the presence of VEGF-D and Flt-4 was associated with the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of pancreatic cancer. Methods: The expressions of VEGF-D and Flt-4 proteins were examined by immunohistochemical staining in 48 pancreatic cancer tissues, 32 adjacent pancreatic tissues, and 13 normal pancreatic tissue samples. Differences in distribution of VEGF-D or Flt4 were analyzed using the χ2 test. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to estimate survival time and log-rank test was used to compare differences in survival time between the patients with or without VEGF-D or Flt-4 expression. Results: Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the positive staining rates of VEGF-D and Flt-4 in pancreatic cancer tissues were significantly lower than that in para-cancerous tissues (P < 0.05), but significantly higher than that in normal pancreatic tissues (P < 0.05). Pancreatic cancer tissues with lymph node metastasis had higher expression of VEGF-D and Flt-4 compared with those without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.01). The median survival time and 1-, 2-, 3-year survival rate of VEGF-D-or Flt-4-positive patients were significantly decreased compared with VEGF-D- or Flt-4-negative patients (P < 0.05). Conclusion: VEGF-D and Flt-4 may contribute to lymph node metastasis and may serve as a prognostic factor for pancreatic cancer patients.