COMPARATIVE-EVALUATION OF ANGIOGENESIS ASSESSMENT WITH ANTI-FACTOR-VIII AND ANTI-CD31 IMMUNOSTAINING IN NONSMALL CELL LUNG-CANCER

Anti-Factor VIII vessel immunostaining has been widely used in the det ection of angiogenesis in non-small cell lung cancer and other tumors, Several new antibodies have shown a higher sensitivity, and anti CD31 has recently been proposed to be the standard for microvessel study, In the present study, we comparatively evaluated the two antibodies in 134 cases of early operable non-small cell lung cancer, The F8/86 (an ti-Factor VIII-associated antigen) and JC70 (anti-CD31) MoAbs were use d in paraffin-embedded material, Eye appraisal of vascular grade (VG) and microvessel score (MS) was performed by three experienced patholog ists, Different cutoff points were used for the analysis of VG and MS correlation with nodal involvement, overall survival, and thymidine ph osphorylase expression, Intra-and interobserver variability was minima l for both antibodies, MS and VG were significantly correlated with ea ch other, However, 54 and 22% of cases with high anti-CD31 VG or high MS, respectively, had low vascularization on anti-Factor VIII assessme nt, Anti-CD31 scoring was significantly associated with nodal involvem ent and overall survival for all cutoff points considered, which was n ot verified for anti-Factor VIII staining, VG was the most significant indicator of nodal involvement and survival for both antibodies, Tumo rs with high VG by anti-CD31 but low or medium VG by anti-Factor VIII behaved as tumors of high neoangiogenesis, defining a poor prognosis ( P = 0.005) despite the failure of anti-factor VIII antibody to highlig ht intense neoangiogenesis. Anti-CD31 MS significantly associated with thymidine phosphorylase overexpression (P = 0.01), whereas no correla tion was found for anti-Factor VIII counting, It was concluded that an ti-CD31 microvessel immunostaining has several advantages over anti-Fa ctor VIII, being a more sensitive method for highlighting small, immat ure microvessels or single endothelial cells, This could be of importa nce in revealing possible correlation of tumor angiogenesis with metas tatic behavior, prognosis, or angiogenic factor overexpression, Vascul ar grading was the best method for neovascularization assessment, effi ciently defining groups of tumors with aggressive clinical course.