Angiogenesis in breast carcinoma: a histopathologic and genetic study

ABSTRACT

43 heparinized blood samples and 100 controls were obtained from the NEMROCK out patient clinic and subjected to HLA typing by the micro-droplet lymphocytotoxicity technique, to determine the HLA pattern of patients with breast cancer with respect to mild [< 15 percent SA], moderate [15-55 percent] and marked [> 55 percent SA] angiogenic activity, observed quantitatively by the point counting method in 43 surgical biopsies from these patients, sent to the Department of Pathology, Cairo University. Patients exhibiting minimal angiogenesis were found to be significantly associated with a high frequency of HLA-AIO antigen, [P < 0.005, RR 3.59], whereas patients exhibiting moderate to marked angiogenesis did not show any genetic pattern, thereby indicating that some form of protective genetic mechanism occurs in certain patients with breast carcinoma preventing the host to some degree from eliciting neovascularization of the tumour stroma, hence limiting the clinical progress of the neoplasm and accounting to some extent for the individual variations in the clinical outcome commonly observed in mammary carcinoma