Prognostic value of microvessel density in invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast

The importance of angiogenesis in cancer development has been well described in experimental and clinical studies 1-3). Most cancers persist for years in a phase without neovascularization, while a switch to an angiogenic phenotype induces the metastatic potential of cancer cells 1,2). Weider et al. 4) first demonstrated the clinical usefulness of quantifying angiogenesis by measuring the microvessels in breast cancer tissue using a specific marker for vascular endothelial cells. Since then, many studies have evaluated the microvessel density (MVD) as a prognostic factor for breast cancer. MVD was found to significantly correlate with the presence of regional or distant metastases 4, 5) and further studies indicated MVD to have a prognostic significance for breast cancer 6,7). Recent studies, however, have failed to confirm a consistent correlation between the MVD and a clinical outcome in breast cancer 18-23). The prognostic value of MVD in breast cancer still remains controversial. The possible sources of such discordance are different methods to evaluate the MVD and the stratification of the patient groups according to the MVD value 15-18, 22). In the present study, we evaluated the prognostic significance of MVD, using univariate and multivariate analyses, in 252 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.