Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 2, 2026
Quantification of Tumor Cell Adhesion in Lymph Node Cryosections
Published on: February 9, 2020
Angiogenic ability of metastatic squamous carcinoma in the cervical lymph nodes from unknown primary tumours
Beamon Agarwal1, Pragnya Das, Kikkeri N Naresh
1Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA. beamon@mail.med.upenn.edu
Objectives:
To study angiogenesis in metastasis of unknown primary (MUP) to support the authors' hypothesis that MUPs are of a low angiogenic phenotype and are able to undergo metastasis in spite of an unknown primary.
Patients And Methods:
A retrospective analysis was performed on paraffin blocks obtained from 50 cases of MUP and 52 cases of metastasis of known primary (MKP) from 1 January 2000 to December 2003. A prospective analysis was performed on fresh tissues from 22 cases of MUP and 26 cases of MKP. Immunohistochemical staining for VEGF was performed on the paraffin blocks. The fresh frozen tissue was analysed by RT-PCR and Western blotting for VEGF isoforms (VEGF₁₂₁, VEGF₁₆₅, VEGF₁₈₉) and VEGF protein, respectively.
Results:
Immunohistochemistry showed that MUPs had a higher percentage of lower scores of VEGF₁₈₉ expression than MKPs. MKPs had increased scores of VEGF expression. RT-PCR analysis showed that MKPs had increased expression of VEGF₁₂₁ and VEGF₁₆₅ isoforms as compared with MUPs. MKPs showed a higher VEGF protein expression than MUPs.
Conclusion:
The study shows that metastases of squamous carcinoma from unknown primary have decreased VEGF expression at the immunohistochemical and protein level. They also display decreased expression of the VEGF₁₂₁ and VEGF₁₆₅ isoforms. Hence, these tumours are of a low angiogenic phenotype. They are able to develop a metastatic phenotype and grow at the metastatic site, since angiogenesis is redundant for lymph-node metastasis.
