OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis and lymphovascular invasion in a large cohort of breast cancer patients. INTRODUCTION: Invasion of tumor cells into blood and lymphatic vessels is one of the critical steps for metastasis. The presence or absence of lymph node metastasis is one of the main decision criteria for further therapy. One shortcoming of previous morphologic studies was the lack of specific markers that could exact discriminate between blood and lymphatic vessels. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis and lymphovascular invasion in breast cancer patients. METHODS: We investigated 374 tissue specimens of patients suffering from invasive breast cancer by immunostaining for the lymphatic endothelial specific marker podoplanin. Lymphangiogenesis, quantified by evaluating the lymphatic microvessels density (LMVD), and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were correlated with various clinical parameters and prognostic relevance. RESULTS: LMVD correlated significantly with LVI (P = 0.001). LVI was associated significantly with a higher risk for developing lymph-node metastasis (P = 0.004). Calculating the prognostic relevance, LVI presented as an independent prognostic parameter for disease free as well as overall survival (P = 0.001, and P = 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our data provide evidence that the biologic system of lymphangiogenesis constitutes a potential new target for development of anti-breast cancer therapeutic concepts. Our results further suggest that young, premenopausal patients with low differentiated breast tumors and high LMVD and LVI would, in particular, benefit from lymphangiogenesis-associated therapeutic strategies.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis and lymphovascular invasion in a large cohort of breast cancerpatients. INTRODUCTION: Invasion of tumor cells into blood and lymphatic vessels is one of the critical steps for metastasis. The presence or absence of lymph node metastasis is one of the main decision criteria for further therapy. One shortcoming of previous morphologic studies was the lack of specific markers that could exact discriminate between blood and lymphatic vessels. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic relevance of lymphangiogenesis and lymphovascular invasion in breast cancerpatients. METHODS: We investigated 374 tissue specimens of patients suffering from invasive breast cancer by immunostaining for the lymphatic endothelial specific marker podoplanin. Lymphangiogenesis, quantified by evaluating the lymphatic microvessels density (LMVD), and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were correlated with various clinical parameters and prognostic relevance. RESULTS: LMVD correlated significantly with LVI (P = 0.001). LVI was associated significantly with a higher risk for developing lymph-node metastasis (P = 0.004). Calculating the prognostic relevance, LVI presented as an independent prognostic parameter for disease free as well as overall survival (P = 0.001, and P = 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our data provide evidence that the biologic system of lymphangiogenesis constitutes a potential new target for development of anti-breast cancer therapeutic concepts. Our results further suggest that young, premenopausal patients with low differentiated breast tumors and high LMVD and LVI would, in particular, benefit from lymphangiogenesis-associated therapeutic strategies.
Authors: P Auvinen; R Tammi; J Parkkinen; M Tammi; U Agren; R Johansson; P Hirvikoski; M Eskelinen; V M Kosma Journal: Am J Pathol Date: 2000-02 Impact factor: 4.307
Authors: J Jacquemier; M P Mathoulin-Portier; R Valtola; E Charafe-Jauffret; J Geneix; G Houvenaeghel; B Puig; V J Bardou; J Hassoun; P Viens; D Birnbaum Journal: Int J Cancer Date: 2000-01-20 Impact factor: 7.396
Authors: E Kriehuber; S Breiteneder-Geleff; M Groeger; A Soleiman; S F Schoppmann; G Stingl; D Kerjaschki; D Maurer Journal: J Exp Med Date: 2001-09-17 Impact factor: 14.307
Authors: Juan Carlos de Vicente; Tania Rodríguez Santamarta; Juan Pablo Rodrigo; Juana María García-Pedrero; Eva Allonca; Verónica Blanco-Lorenzo Journal: Virchows Arch Date: 2015-03-01 Impact factor: 4.064
Authors: Mariko Asaoka; Santosh K Patnaik; Frank Zhang; Takashi Ishikawa; Kazuaki Takabe Journal: Breast Cancer Res Treat Date: 2020-04-13 Impact factor: 4.872
Authors: Marise R Heerma van Voss; Petra van der Groep; Jos Bart; Elsken van der Wall; Paul J van Diest Journal: BMC Cancer Date: 2010-04-16 Impact factor: 4.430
Authors: Masataka Matsumoto; Sally Roufail; Rachael Inder; Carol Caesar; Tara Karnezis; Ramin Shayan; Rae H Farnsworth; Teruhiko Sato; Marc G Achen; G Bruce Mann; Steven A Stacker Journal: Clin Exp Metastasis Date: 2013-04-17 Impact factor: 5.150