RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VASCULARITY, AGE AND SURVIVAL IN NON-SMALL-CELL LUNG-CANCER

Lung tumours in the elderly show reduced growth potential; impaired an giogenesis may contribute to this phenomenon. Recent studies have sugg ested that the angiogenic potential of a tumour may be inferred by the vascularity measured in histological sections. The purpose of this st udy has been to determine whether vascularity is related to age, survi val or other clinical parameters in resected non-small-cell lung cance r (NSCLC). A group of 88 consecutive patients with a follow-up period of at least 5 years was selected. The group exhibited a wide age range (37-78 years) and similar survival characteristics to those of the ge neral NSCLC population. Tumour sections were stained with a pan-endoth elial antibody (vWF) and vascularity was quantitated, without knowledg e of the clinical details, by three methods: highest microvascular den sity, average microvascular density; and average microvascular volume. The results were analysed by non-parametric statistical tests. A corr elation was found between all three methods of quantitation. Vasculari ty was not associated with age, sex, tumour type, stage, volume, size (TNM-T) nodal status (TNM-N) or survival. However, survival time was g enerally longer for patients with higher vascularity, reaching borderl ine significance (P = 0.06) for the average microvascular density valu es. Higher tumour volume (P = 0.02) and stage (P = 0.05) were associat ed with lower survival times. Using multivariate survival analysis, tu mour volume was the only factor related to survival. We conclude that vascularity is not associated with age and has no significant prognost ic value in NSCLC.