[Relationship between VEGF-C expression and nasopharyngeal carcinoma proliferation and metastasis].

Objective: To detect the expression of VEGF-C in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and explore its relationship with proliferation and metastasis of NPC.

Methods: Biopsy specimens of 62 NPC patients were divided into 2 equal portions, one for immunohistochemical staining with VEGF-C polyclonal antibody by streptavidin peroxidase method, another for flow cytometry with Ki67 antibody to analyze the proliferation of tumors. The patients were followed up periodically, and then their 3-year survival and the cause of death were statistically analyzed.

Results: Of the 62 patients, the percentage of VEGF-C positive cells in the tumors ranged from 0 - 82%, 17 (27.4%) were negative, 13 (21.0%) weak positive, 18 (29.0%) moderate positive and 14 (22.6%) strong positive. Ki67 positive tumor cells ranged from 0 - 52%, 40 cases (64.5%) showed low expression which include 15 cases of negative, 22 (35.5%) showed high expression. There was a direct relationship between the expression of VEGF-C and Ki67 (r = 0.323, P < 0.05). The 3-year survival rate of 62 patients was 66.1%. The expression of VEGF-C in the patients with positive lymph node was much higher than that with negative lymph node (P < 0.01). Among the 8 patients with distant metastasis, their VEGF-C expression was strong positive while among the 21 disease free survival patients, their VEGF-C expression was (-) or (+) account for 80.9%. An inverse correlation was found between the VEGF-C expression and prognosis of NPC patients, but the difference has no statistical significance (r = -0.219, P > 0.05).

Conclusion: High expression of VEGF-C is related with proliferation and metastasis of NPC cells. It is not an independent prognostic factor, but a predictive marker of disease-free survival of NPC patients.