Overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor is responsible for the hematogenous recurrence of early-stage gastric carcinoma

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is crucial for angiogenesis in va rious malignant tumors. However, it is still unclear whether VEGF is respon sible for hematogenous metastasis after the curative resection of gastric c arcinoma. In the present study, we evaluated the relevance of VEGF expressi on to the hematogenous recurrence of stage 1 or 2 primary gastric adenocarc inoma. Among 530 patients, 11 (2.1%) had hematogenous recurrence. Clinicopa thological variables were compared between these 11 patients (group R) and 88 patients without intramucosal carcinoma who survived for more than 5 yea rs (group S). Microvessel density (MVD) was assessed immunohistochemically along with VEGF protein expression in all patients from group R and 21 rand omly selected patients from group S. There were significant differences in age, tumor size and VEGF expression in tumor tissue between the groups. Pos itive staining for VEGF protein was observed in all patients of group R, of whom 6 had strongly positive staining. On the other hand, 11 out of 21 pat ients in group S had positive staining and it was weak in all cases. Both t he positive and strongly positive rate were significantly higher in group R than those in group S. There was no significant difference in MVD between the 2 groups (17.7 +/- 11.09/field in group R vs. 14.8 +/- 10.27/field in g roup S) and no significant correlation between VEGF expression, MVD and ven ous invasion, though a weak correlation between the intensity of VEGF stain ing and MVD was observed (negative staining 12.1 +/- 10.51;weakly positive 16.67 +/- 10.41; strongly positive 19.7 +/- 9.97). Our results suggest that overexpression of VEGF, and not MVD or venous invasion, plays an important role in the hematogenous recurrence of curatively resected gastric carcino ma. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.