Vascular endothelial growth factor and other biological predictors related to the postoperative survival rate on non-small cell lung cancer

Objective: An analysis of postoperative 1-5 year-survival rates related to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGF-r), microvascular density (MVD), P53, H-ras, CerbB2, proliferative index (PI), divisional index (DI) were carried out on 127 cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with curative resection and aim to find out more sensitive molecular prognostic predictors for the reference of medicine and molecular pathology. Methods: All the cases were staged strictly using the UICC criteria of 1997 and regional lymphonodes seen by the naked eye should be dissected and sent to pathology with lung specimens. Immunohistochemical analyses were used for those biological predictors. Kaplan-Meier curve. Cox univariance and multivariance analysis were used for the survival and prognostic predictors. Results: 52 cases (40.9%) with high expression of VEGF showed a worse postoperative year-survival rate than cases with low expression, but no statistical difference. The difference of survival on stage I case with high and low expression were closed to be significant value (P = 0.0643). P53, PI and DI were related to postoperative survival, P = 0.0341, 0.0005 and 0.0162, respectively. Co-expression of VEGF combined with P53, PI and DI was calculated for the difference of year-survival rate by Cox multivariance analysis, The survival rates of cases with both negative VEGF + P53 or VEGF + PI co-expression rate were better than those with both positive or either positive, P values were 0.0159 and 0.0154, respectively. Conclusion: The post-operative year-survival of NSCLC was of no statistical difference between with high expression and low expression of VEGF, but in stage I case it was closed to be significant difference, it speculated that the neoangiogenesis is more obviously in early stage NSCLC, but in the later stage of NSCLC, it may be covered by more complicated molecular-biological factors such as P53 and other oncogens. Co-expression of VEGF combined with p53 or PI was more meaningful than a single biological predicator on survival rate of NSCLC, it is worth to do further studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.