Angiogenesis and p53 protein expression in breast cancer - Prognostic roles and interrelationships

The authors have analyzed, on the one hand, the prognostic impact of microv essel density (MVD) and p53 protein expression in patients with breast canc er, and on the other hand, the correlation between the microvascular patter n and the p53 protein expression. Tumors from 120 patients whose paraffin-e mbedded tissue blocks were available were analyzed using the immunohistoche mical method. MVD and p53 protein expression were correlated with histologi c grade and tumor size, respectively. The patients with highly vascularized tumor (high MVD) had decreased overall survival (p = 0.04), whereas overex pressed p53 patients did not. in multivariate analysis, axillary lymph node status (p = 0.007), tumor size (p = 0.01), and MVD (p = 0.02) showed impor tant prognostic influence on overall survival. When the simultaneous influe nce of MVD and p53 protein expression on survival were analyzed, no interre lationship was detected. The results demonstrate the prognostic impact of M VD on overall survival in breast cancer and no association between MVD and p53 protein expression.