Angiogenesis in invasive breast carcinoma: is it associated with parameters of prognostic significance?

Recent experimental and clinical studies suggest that tumour-induced angiogenesis may be an important step in the evolution of malignant tumours, and may be related to prognosis. In our study we examined 42 cases of breast carcinoma (mean age: 56.76 +/- 13.5), 21 with lymph node metastases and 21 without. Angiogenesis was evaluated after immunohistochemical staining of tumour vessels, using polyclonal antibody to factor VIII related antigen (VIIIR-Ag) and counting of the three most active areas of neovascularization. In the same manner we counted the microvessels in lymph node metastases. The mean vessel count of node-negative cases (51.16 +/- 19.32) did not differ significantly from node-positive cases (45.66 +/- 17.44). In contrast patients younger than 50 years had much higher mean vessel counts (54.04 +/- 16.47) than did patients older than 70 years (38.03 +/- 16.73) producing a P value of < or = 0.05. No association was found between tumour size and mean vessel count, nor was there any significant difference between grade I (45.94 +/- 16.54), grade II (53.13 +/- 23.22) and grade III tumours (51.71 +/- 20.64). When we compared the mean vessel count of primary tumours with those of node metastases, we found much lower counts in the latter (P < or = 0.01). The differences in our results from previous studies, probably reflect the heterogeneity which exists between different tumours in their ability to induce angiogenesis. Additionally, there is some evidence in our study that angiogenesis is possibly related to patient age and probably depends on differences in the tumour stroma.