Work

Peritumoral Neuropilin-1 and VEGF receptor-2 expression increases time to recurrence in hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing curative hepatectomy

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: // Peng-Yuan Zhuang 1 , Jian-Dong Wang 1 , Zhao-Hui Tang 1 , Xue-Ping Zhou 1 , Yong Yang 1 , Zhi-Wei Quan 1 , Ying-Bin Liu 1 , Jun Shen 1 1 Department of General Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200082, China Correspondence to: Jun Shen, e-mail: [email protected] Keywords: Neuropilin-1, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2, peritumoral tissue, overall survival, recurrence Received: August 04, 2014 Accepted: September 30, 2014 Published: October 11, 2014 ABSTRACT Purpose: To determined Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) expression in the tumoral and peritumoral tissues of 214 treatment-naïve HCC patients and its correlation with overall survival (OS) and time to recurrence (TTR). Experimental Design: NRP-1 and VEGFR-2 expression were examined by tissue microarray and peritumoral hypoxia by pimonidazole staining and angiogenesis by microvessel density (MVD). OS and TTR were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test. Results: Peritumoral NRP-1 and VEGFR-2 expression were significantly higher than that of the tumoral tissue ( p < 0.001 for both), and high peritumoral expression of both factors was negatively associated with tumor size ( p < 0.001 for both). Patients with high peritumoral expression of both proteins had the longest median OS (>94.0 months) and TTR (>84.0 months). The multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that patients with high peritumoral expression of both NRP-1 and VEGFR-2 were more than 4 times less likely to have recurrence ( p = 0.004) and more than 10 times likely to survive ( p < 0.001). Conclusions: Peritumoral NRP-1 and VEGFR-2 expression is associated with prolonged TTR and extended OS of HCC patients and both may be useful as predictors of surgical outcome of HCC patients and explored as potential therapeutic targets.

Source: Oncotarget

DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.2553