APOPTOSIS AND TUMOR ANGIOGENESIS IN CERVICAL-CANCER AFTER PREOPERATIVE CHEMOTHERAPY

The correlation between apoptosis and tumor angiogenesis in uterine ce rvical cancer treated by preoperative intraarterial infusion chemother apy (IAC) was investigated. Cervical cancer samples surgically obtaine d from 12 patients (stages Ib-IIIb) receiving IAC and from 10 patients (stages Ib-IIb) receiving no chemotherapy and biopsy specimens from t he 12 patients before IAC were examined. The apoptotic index (AI) was determined with an in situ end-labeling assay. Intratumoral microvesse l density (IMVD) and thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) expression wer e evaluated immunohistochemically using anti-CD34 and anti-dThdPase an tibodies. AIs were higher in the 8 patients with complete or partial r esponse to IAC than they were in the 4 nonchemoresponsive patients and in the 10 patients who received no chemotherapy (P < 0.01) and were i nversely related to IMVDs (r = 0.724; P < 0.01), AIs and IMVDs after I AC were higher and lower than those before IAC (P < 0.01), respectivel y. The expression of dThdPase, which has angiogenic activity, was mark edly decreased after IAC. These results suggest that the antitumor eff ects of IAC are closely associated with apoptotic cell death, which ma y be influenced in part by the extent of tumor angiogenesis inhibition .