口腔鳞状细胞癌中血管内皮生长因子-C的表达及其与血管、淋巴管生成、淋巴结转移的关系

目的探讨血管内皮生长因子-C（VEGF-C）在口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）组织中的表达情况及其与血管、淋巴管生成、淋巴结转移之间的关系。方法调查拥有完整临床病理资料的67例口腔鳞癌患者的手术切除标本，采用SP免疫组化技术检测VEGF-C的表达情况并分析其与微血管密度（MVD）、淋巴管密度（LVD）及其他临床病理指标的关系。结果晚期病例、淋巴结转移阳性病例的VEGF-C表达明显升高（P值分别为0.015和<0.001），而VEGF-C表达与患者性别、肿瘤部位、肿瘤分化程度无关（P>0.05）。VEGF-C高表达组的LVD明显高于VEGF-C低表达组（P=0.001），但两组间MVD无统计学差异（P=0.125）。此外，淋巴结转移阳性组的LVD明显高于淋巴结转移阴性组（P=0.026）。结论VEGF-C可能主要通过参与诱导口腔鳞癌淋巴管生成促进淋巴结转移。

The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-C in oral squamous cell carcinoma and its associations with angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis and lymph node metastasis

Objective To study the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-C（VEGF-C） in oral squamous cell carcinoma（OSCC） and its relation to angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, as well as lymph node metastasis. Methods Sixty-seven archival specimens from patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma were investigated, whose clinicopathologic data were completely conserved. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect the expression of VEGF-C, microvessel density（MVD）, lymphatic vessel density（LVD）. The correlations between VEGF-C expression and MVD, LVD, as well as other clinicopathological features were measured. Results Although no correlation between VEGF-C expression and tumor location, histological grade, or gender of the patients was observed（P>0.05）, OSCC patients with more advanced clinical stages and lymph node metastasis were prone to have high expression of VEGF-C（P=0.015 and P<0.001, respectively）. Cases with high-expression of VEGF-C also showed significantly more often higher LVD（P=0.001） but not MVD（P=0.125）. In addition, cases with lymph node involvement presented higher LVD than other cases（P=0.026）. Conclusion VEGF-C may promote lymph node metastasis by inducing lymphangiogenesis in OSCC.