Clinicopathological features of hepatocellular carcinoma evaluated by vascular endothelial growth factor expression.

Aim: To evaluate the significance of the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its correlation with clinicopathological variables were studied in the tissue of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and surrounding liver.

Methods: In 56 samples (tumor and non-tumor liver tissue) collected from 28 patients, VEGF expression was examined by immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis.

Results: The value of VEGF expression by western blotting was correlated with immunohistochemical staining grade.

Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors is closely related to the histological grade of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Angiogenesis is important for tumor growth, and is regulated by angiogenetic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In the present study, we investigated whether or not expression of VEGF receptors (VEGFRs) is related to the proliferation of tumor cells in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We simultaneously stained proliferation marker Ki-67 antigen and either VEGFR1 (Flt-1) or VEGFR2 (Flk-1) on paraffin-embedded tissue sections from 50 cases of surgically resected human HCC.

Magnetic resonance imaging and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in hepatocellular nodules in cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinomas.

We summarized and discussed our previous research results on correlation between magnetic resonance (MR) imaging findings and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in benign or borderline hepatocellular nodules in cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), and in the surrounding liver. Magnetic resonance images were retrospectively correlated quantitatively and qualitatively with VEGF expression in hepatic nodules and in the surrounding liver. By immunohistochemistry, hepatic nodules with moderate to strong immunoreactivity for VEGF showed higher T1 signal intensity, and those with intense immunoreactivity for VEGF showed higher T2 signal intensity.

Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in hepatocellular carcinoma and the surrounding liver and correlation with MRI findings.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the correlation between the quantitative and qualitative imaging findings on unenhanced and gadolinium-enhanced MR images and the intensity of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in hepatocellular carcinomas and in the surrounding nontumorous liver.

Materials And Methods: The intensities of VEGF expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and in the surrounding liver by Western blot analysis were converted to VEGF expression indexes (VEGF(IND)) in 22 surgical specimens ranging in size from 14 to 126 mm (mean, 47.6 +/- 29.

Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in hepatocellular carcinoma and the surrounding liver: correlation with angiographically assisted CT.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the correlation between the intensity and characteristics of contrast enhancement on angiographically assisted CT and the intensity of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and in the surrounding nontumorous liver.

Materials And Methods: The intensity of VEGF expression in HCC and in the surrounding liver was expressed as a VEGF expression index by Western blot analysis in 20 surgical specimens resected in 20 patients between March 2000 and August 2002. Findings on CT during arterial portography (n = 20) and CT hepatic arteriography (n = 17) were retrospectively evaluated to determine contrast enhancement indexes and the enhancement characteristics of HCCs and of the surrounding liver.

Minute gastric carcinoid tumor with regional lymph node metastasis.

We report a patient with a minute gastric carcinoid tumor with lymph node metastasis, and a small gastric cancer. A 50-year-old man having a diagnosis of an elevated lesion on the anterior wall of the gastric body, detected by a series of upper gastrointestinal examinations, was referred to the Cancer Institute Hospital. Careful upper fluoroscopy disclosed a small superficial depressed lesion with converging folds and a superficial elevated lesion covered with nonspecific gastric mucosa.

[Percutaneous cryoablation therapy under local anesthesia for unresectable metastatic liver tumors].

Even though liver resection is the first choice against metastatic liver tumors, oncologists are often obliged to include other treatment modalities depending on metastatic tumor size, number of metastatic nodules, location of tumors, patient's general condition, and so on. Among others we selected cryoablation therapy against unresectable tumors and examined its usefulness clinically in 5 patients. Under local anesthesia, the cryoprobe, which was 3 mm in diameter, was introduced into the center of the tumor by use of an ultrasonographic guiding technique.