RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the correlation between enhancement parameters of multiphase contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and immunohistochemical activities of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), VEGF receptors, and CD34 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven patients underwent curative resection for HCC with no preoperative treatment. We defined several CT enhancement parameters by measuring attenuation values of tumor, liver parenchyma, and aorta. The stored tissue blocks were assayed for immunohistochemical activities of VEGF, two VEGF receptors (Flt-1, Flk-1), and CD34, which were correlated with the enhancement parameters of multiphase contrast-enhanced CT. RESULTS: The VEGF activities in HCC showed moderate positive correlation with phase difference in portal phase, delayed enhancement (DE), tumor-blood ratio, blood pool index, and tumor-parenchyma ratio in arterial phase. The Flk-1 activities in HCC showed moderate positive correlation only with DE. CD34 activity in HCC showed positive correlation with most of the CT parameters except for DE. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that several CT enhancement parameters representing mainly delayed enhancement features were well correlated with VEGF activity in HCC, and might be valuable indicators for assessing angiogenic activity in HCC.
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the correlation between enhancement parameters of multiphase contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and immunohistochemical activities of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), VEGF receptors, and CD34 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven patients underwent curative resection for HCC with no preoperative treatment. We defined several CT enhancement parameters by measuring attenuation values of tumor, liver parenchyma, and aorta. The stored tissue blocks were assayed for immunohistochemical activities of VEGF, two VEGF receptors (Flt-1, Flk-1), and CD34, which were correlated with the enhancement parameters of multiphase contrast-enhanced CT. RESULTS: The VEGF activities in HCC showed moderate positive correlation with phase difference in portal phase, delayed enhancement (DE), tumor-blood ratio, blood pool index, and tumor-parenchyma ratio in arterial phase. The Flk-1 activities in HCC showed moderate positive correlation only with DE. CD34 activity in HCC showed positive correlation with most of the CT parameters except for DE. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that several CT enhancement parameters representing mainly delayed enhancement features were well correlated with VEGF activity in HCC, and might be valuable indicators for assessing angiogenic activity in HCC.
Authors: Philippe Lambin; Ruud G P M van Stiphout; Maud H W Starmans; Emmanuel Rios-Velazquez; Georgi Nalbantov; Hugo J W L Aerts; Erik Roelofs; Wouter van Elmpt; Paul C Boutros; Pierluigi Granone; Vincenzo Valentini; Adrian C Begg; Dirk De Ruysscher; Andre Dekker Journal: Nat Rev Clin Oncol Date: 2012-11-20 Impact factor: 66.675