Abstract
In this study, we measured microvascular densities using two types of vascular endothelial markers, CD34 and nestin, and performed clinical pathological analyses of breast cancer tumors The subjects included 144 primary breast cancer patients who had undergone surgical resection. Microvascular densities were obtained by randomly selecting three fields of the tumor margins of CD34-and nestin-immunostained samples under high magnification and adding the numbers of positive blood vessels from these fields together. Both CD34 and nestin immunostaining revealed that the microvascular density was higher in patients with lymph node metastases, distant metastases, and lymphatic vessel invasion compared to those without. Although no significant correlation was observed between microvascular density and age, significant correlation were detected between microvascular density and tumor diameter, nuclear grade (NG), and hormone receptor expression. Moreover, a significant decrease in overall survival was observed in cases with high microvascular densities compared to low density cases as measured by CD34 and nestin. The results of this study suggest that microvascular densities in breast cancer tumors may reflect the metastatic growth potential of the tumor or the prognosis of a patient. No obvious differences were observed between CD34 or nestin, the two vascular endothelial markers used to measure microvascular densities in this study.
