Assessing microvessels and angiogenesis in human breast cancer, using VE-cadherin

Martin, Tracey Amanda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2690-4908, Watkins, G, Lane, Jane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1926-4909 and Jiang, Wen Guo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3283-1111 2005. Assessing microvessels and angiogenesis in human breast cancer, using VE-cadherin. Histopathology 46 (4) , pp. 422-430. 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2005.02104.x

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Abstract

Aims : Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin, also known as cadherin-5 and CD144, is an adhesion molecule uniquely expressed in endothelial cells. We hypothesized that VE-cadherin may be a useful marker for assessing microvessels and angiogenesis in human breast cancer and sought to determine whether a correlation exists between levels of VE-cadherin, angiogenic markers factor VIII and platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM)-1 and patient outcome in breast cancer. Methods and results : Frozen sections from breast cancer primary tumours (tumour n = 114, background n = 30) were immunostained with VE-cadherin, factor VIII and PECAM-1 antibodies and microvessel number was assessed. RNA was reverse transcribed and analysed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR). VE-cadherin immunostaining showed a significant difference in microvessel number in tumour compared with background. There was no significant difference in the number of microvessels stained with PECAM-1 or factor VIII; there was increased staining of other structures within the sample and higher general background staining. Q-PCR revealed elevated levels of VE-cadherin and PECAM-1 in tumour samples compared with background tissue and in patients with a poor prognosis, as determined by the Nottingham Prognostic Index. There was no difference in levels with factor VIII. Both VE-cadherin and PECAM-1 had significantly reduced expression in lobular compared with ductal carcinomas: there was no difference with factor VIII. Conclusion : Higher levels of angiogenic marker molecules in breast cancer may have an association with poor prognosis in patients. Moreover, VE-cadherin appears to be a preferable marker for such analysis.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > RB Pathology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Angiogenic marker; breast cancer; VE-cadherin
Publisher:	Blackwell Publishing
ISSN:	0309-0167
Funders:	Cancer Research UK
Date of Acceptance:	30 March 2004
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2022 06:48
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/87921

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