IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDIES OF VASCULAR VOLUME AND PROLIFERATIVE ACTIVITY IN SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE ESOPHAGUS

For immunohistochemical investigation and clarification of the relatio nship between the vascular volume in esophageal carcinoma and the prol iferative activity of its tumor cells, we examined surgical specimens of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the esophagus from 15 patients, Th e vascular volume was evaluated by immunostaining for platelet-endothe lial cell adhesion molecule-1 with monoclonal antibody JC70, and the p roliferative activity of the carcinoma cells was evaluated by immunost aining for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) with antibody 19A 2, The ratio of the vascular area to the tumor area and the labeling i ndex (LI) for PCNA in the carcinoma cells was then calculated, The ant ibody JC70 was useful for immunohistochemically detecting blood microv essels in esophageal carcinoma, The vascular volume, expressed as the ratio mentioned above, was higher in well- and moderately differentiat ed SCCs than in poorly differentiated SCC (P < 0.01), and the PCNA LI did not depend on the degree of differentiation. However, there was a significantly inverse relationship between the ratio of the vascular a rea to that of carcinoma and the PCNA LI of the carcinoma cells (P < 0 .01), These findings show that angiogenesis is greater in esophageal c arcinomas with little proliferative activity.