VEGF-C in rectal cancer tissues promotes tumor invasion and metastasis

To investigate the relationship between the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) in rectal cancer tissues and clinicopathological factors.

The molecular expression of VEGF-C in rectal cancer tissue derived from 45 patients and normal colon tissue from 15 subjects was detected using the immunohistochemical streptavidin/biotin/peroxidase complex (SABC) three-step method. The expression of VEGF-C in rectal cancer and its relationship with clinicopathological factors were statistically analyzed via x2 test or Spearman's rank correlation analysis or Wilcoxon rank sum test.

The positive expression rate of VEGF-C was 75.55% in rectal cancer tissues and 6.66% in normal tissues (p<0.01). The positive expression of VEGF-C was not related to patient gender, age and tumor diameter, but related to the grade of differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage (p<0.05). Positive intensity had no statistically significant difference with grade of differentiation and depth of invasion (p>0.05), but had statistically significant difference in lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage (p<0.05).

1) VEGF-C is highly expressed in rectal cancer tissues; 2) The positive expression of VEGF-C is positively correlated with tumor invasion depth, lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage; 3) Detection of VEGF-C expression can be used as a prognostic marker in rectal cancer.