The Immunohistochemical Study for Angiogenesis of Bladder Cancer

Lee, Jun Hyun; Seo, Kyung Keun; Kim, Young Sun; Park, Eun Sub

Abstract

All solid tumors require the induction of new blood vessel to grow. The neovascularization of tumor tissue(angiogenesis) is considered essential for tumor growth, proliferation and eventually metastasis. Recent reports have demonstrated that the intensity of tumor angiogenesis in prostate and other tumors may be of prognostic value. We analyzed the prognostic significance of microvessel quantitation in bladder carcinoma. Microvessels were identified by immunohistochemistry using antibodies to endothelial marker, factor VIII-related antigen. The three most vascular area within a tumor were selected, and the microvessels within a x200 microscopic field of each area were counted by an investigator. The significant relationship was observed between microvessel counts and recurrence rate in 17 patients with superficial bladder cancer. Microvessel counts correlated with stage, grade, lymph node and distant metastasis, and 2 year disease free survival rate in 28 patients with invasive bladder cancer. In 15 patients with invasive cancer who were not showed distant metastasis, tumors from patients who experienced distant metastasis had higher microvessel counts than did tumors from patients who were disease- free(75.7118.59 and 61.7517.78), these values were not significantly different(p=0.081). These findings suggest that assessment of angiogenesis by microvessel quantitation may be a valuable method to predict metastatic potential of tumors, survival and the candidates for adjuvant therapy in patients with invasive bladder cancer.