Different features of angiogenesis between ovarian and breast carcinoma

Angiogenesis assessed by immunohistochemical staining for endothelial cells has been widely accepted as an independent prognostic factor in human brea st carcinoma. However, the clinicopathologic significance of angiogenesis i s still being argued in ovarian carcinoma. Therefore, we retrospectively an alyzed the clinicopathologic significance of angiogenesis in ovarian carcin oma compared with that in breast carcinoma. After vessels were stained with CD34-monoclonal antibody, the areas with the highest number of intratumora l microvessels were assessed in a 200X field in 42 ovarian carcinoma and 41 breast carcinoma. Intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) in ovarian carcin oma was significantly lower than that in breast carcinoma. Further, the dif ference of IMD from tumor to tumor in ovarian carcinoma was smaller than th at in breast carcinoma. IMD was correlated with tumor grade, but not with o ther clinicopathologic variables in ovarian carcinoma. Although the patient s with high-IMD tumor revealed a poorer prognosis than those with low-IMD t umor in breast carcinoma, IMD had no influential effects on the survival of the patients with ovarian carcinoma. Our comparative analysis of IMD in ov arian carcinoma with that in breast carcinoma indicates that angiogenesis m ay play an important role in the transient of ovarian neoplasms, but not in the progression of ovarian carcinomas, and that the biological roles of an giogenesis might be different, depending on histologic subtype. (C) 2001 El sevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.