The angiogenesis patterns as a prognostic factor in non-small cell lung cancer

Intratumoral angiogenesis Is an important factor defining local invasion and distant metastatisation of cancer. We investigated the role of angiogenesis and angiogenic factor expression in early operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). High microvessel score (anti-CD31 MoAb) correlated with poor prognosis. Thymidine phosphorylase (TP) expression was associated with increased microvessel score and poorer prognosis. VEGF expression also associated with high angiogenesis and poor prognosis even in the node-negative group of patients. Loss of wild type p53 activity together with VEGF expression defined a group of patients with very high microvessel score, Although TP and VEGF were frequently co-expressed, no synergistic angiogenic effect was observed. bFGF was not correlated with angiogenesis. However, cases with VEGF expression had also high bFGF expression. bFGF expressing cells were frequently expressing bFGF receptor, which may show an autocrine mechanism. We also investigated the maturation of tumour vasculature using the LH39 MoAb recognising the lamina lucida. We observed that tumours overexpressing TP had a high percentage of vessels with immature vessel walls. Further studies are on going to clarify the pathogenetic mechanisms controlling tumour vascularisation and prognosis in NSCLC.