PROGNOSTIC AND PREDICTIVE VALUE OF TUMOR ANGIOGENESIS IN OVARIAN CARCINOMAS

Experimental studies suggest that angiogenesis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ascites and progression of ovarian cancer. To evaluate the association of intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) wit h the conventional clinicopathologic features and to determine the cap ability of these factors in predicting responsiveness to platinum-base d chemotherapy and overall survival (OS) we studied 112 ovarian carcin omas. IMD was determined using the anti-CD31 antibody and immunocytoch emistry. In the entire series, we correlated IMD with the other featur es. In the subgroup of patients with FIGO stage III-IV (60 cases), we correlated the factors studied, determined prior of treatment, with re sponse to therapy and prognosis. The median IMD value, in the ''hot sp ot'', in the entire series was of 48 microvessels/field. IMD values we re significantly higher in mucinous carcinomas than in the other histo logic types. In FIGO stage III-IV patients IMD, age and performance st atus (PS) were significantly associated with the probability of pathol ogic response to chemotherapy in univariate analysis. However, only IM D and PS retained significance in multivariate analysis. The overall c apability of the 2 variables to predict response was high. In FIGO sta ge III-IV patients IMD, age, PS, the amount of post-operative residual disease (FORD), histologic type and response to chemotherapy were sig nificant prognostic indicators of OS in univariate analysis. In multiv ariate analysis only histologic type, FORD and PS retained significanc e. The overall capability of these 3 variables to predict OS was satis factory. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.