Assessment of angiogenesis in soft-tissue tumors

The aims of our paper were to establish the main morphological and immunohistochemical aspects of tumor vessels, to quantify angiogenesis in soft-tissue tumors and to study the possible relationship between mast cells and angiogenesis. For this purpose, we immunohistochemically investigated 54 cases of benign and malignant tumors for smooth muscle actin and endothelial markers CD34 and CD31. It is presented a simple method to demonstrate simultaneously blood vessels and mast cells in the same section, using anti-CD34 and alcian blue-safranin. Our results strongly support the presence of a large number of immature and intermediate blood vessels in the tumor area. Microvessel density was higher especially in liposarcoma and malignant fibrous histiocytoma, and this finding suggests the application of the antiangiogenic therapy in soft tissue tumors in addition to conventional methods.