The intratumoral expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and interleukin-8 associated with angiogenesis in nonsmall cell lung carcinoma patients.

BACKGROUND: Angiogenesis has important effects on tumor growth and metastasis. It is regulated by a variety of angiogenic and angiostatic factors. METHODS: To evaluate the effects of tumor cell-derived angiogenic factors, we performed an immunohistochemic study to evaluate the intratumoral expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) in relation to intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) in tumors from 104 nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC)patients. RESULTS: Fifty-four carcinomas were VEGF-positive, 47 carcinomas were IL-8-positive, and 53 carcinomas were hypervascular tumors. There was no significant correlation between the percentages of positive VEGF-staining and positive IL-8-staining in NSCLCs (rho = 0.174, P = 0.080). The IMD of VEGF-positive carcinomas was significantly greater than that of VEGF-negative carcinomas (P = 0.023). In addition, the IMD of IL-8-positive carcinomas was significantly greater than that of IL-8-negative carcinomas (P =0.013). The overall survival rate of patients with hypervascular tumors was significantly lower than that of patients with hypovascular tumors (41.0% versus 67.0%, P = 0.004). Cox proportional-hazards regression model also demonstrated that angiogenesis was one of the significant factors in predicting the survival of NSCLC patients (relative risk = 1.944, P = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Intratumoral expression of VEGF and IL-8 was associated with angiogenesis in NSCLCs. Tumor angiogenesis significantly affected the prognosis of NSCLC patients.