[Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in brain astrocytoma and its clinical evaluation]

Angiogenesis is often involved in tumor growth. Neovascularization plays an important role in the prognosis of patients with brain astrocytoma. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been known as the potent angiogenetic factor and mitogen. To gain a deep insight into the possible relation between expression of VEGF and pathological characterization/prognosis in brain astrocytoma, the authors investigated 107 cases of brain astrocytoma and 25 cases of normal brain, tissue via a combination of immunohistochemical staining of paraffin-embedded tissue and follow-up survey. The results showed that the positive staining rate and PU (positive unit) were obviously higher in astrocytoma than that in normal brain (86.92% vs 16.00%, P < 0.05), that the value of the positive staining rate and PU in astrocytoma corresponded closely with its pathological grade and stage (P < 0.01), and that the survival rates (6, 12, 24 months) for the patients suffering from astrocytoma gradually decreased when the VEGF positive rate increased. These suggest that the expression of VEGF may have close relationship with brain astrocytoma and the measurement of the VEGF expression may provide another potential standard for judgement about pathological grade/stage and clinical prognosis in brain astrocytoma.