Combined analysis of tumour neoangiogenesis and local immune response in advanced gastric carcinoma.

Neovascularization and host immune response are important in the growth and metastasis of solid tumours. Thus, microvessel density, and dendritic cell (DC) infiltration, which was thought to be an indicator of local immune function, were examined by immunohistochemistry and their prognostic significance was determined in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma. The 5-year survival rates in patients with both low microvessel counts and marked DC infiltration, in patients with either low microvessel counts or marked DC infiltration, and in patients with both high microvessel counts and slight DC infiltration were 82.6%, 68.6%, and 30.2%, respectively, the differences were statistically significant. Moreover, the multivariate analysis showed that combined analysis of microvessel counts and DC density was an independent prognostic indicator. Our findings indicate that combined analysis of tumour neoangiogenesis and local immune response might be useful for predicting prognoses of patients with advanced gastric carcinoma.