PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF MICROVASCULAR DENSITY IN NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CARCINOMA

Abstract

Background: Lung carcinoma is the most common carcinoma worldwide today, and is still a huge therapeutic and a prognostic problem. Recently, new therapeutic options, like targeted medicaments emerged, and among those are anti-angiogenic drugs. Microvascular density (MVD), as a measure of tumor angiogenesis, is a potential prognostic and predictive factor for lung carcinoma patients, and its assessment as a part of diagnostic procedure is still an open topic.

Aim: The aim of the study was to analyze MVD in lung carcinoma specimens and its connection with the histological type of tumor, tumor grade, and lymph node metastasis.

Patients and methods: Tissue samples included in this study originated from the archive of the Department of Pathology of University Clinical Center Tuzla and were obtained by surgical pulmectomy or lobectomy for NSCLC. The study included 73 patients, 40 with a diagnosis of squamocellular carcinoma (SCC), and 33 with adenocarcinoma (AC). To evaluate MVD, selected tissue samples were immunohistochemicaly stained with CD34 antibody, and analyzed using the AnalySis software.

Results: Significantly higher MVD values were found in adenocarcinoma specimens, compared to squamocellular carcinoma (p=0,002). No statistically significant correlation were found between MVD and tumor grade, or lymph node status, regardless of histological type.

Conclusion: Lung adenocarcinomas have significantly higher MVD compared to squamocellular carcinoma. The absence of significant correlation of tumor MVD with the clinical-pathological variables, knowing the results of the other similar studies, speaks for necessity of additional investigations of the subject.

Keywords: non-small cell lung carcinoma, microvascular density, prognostic factor.