The relationship of lymphatic vessel density detected by D2-40 and expression of lymphatic endothelial growth factors (VEGF-C and VEGF-D) with clinicopathological parameters in bladder urothelial neoplasms

The Relationship of Lymphatic Vessel Density Detected by D2-40 and Expression of Lymphatic Endothelial Growth Factors(VEGF-C and VEGF-D) with Clinicopathological Parametersin Bladder Urothelial NeoplasmsIn this study, 12 PUNLMP, 84 LGPUC, 88 HGPUC, 8 CIS cases diagnosed in the bladder and 30 normal mucosal samples have been evaluated for the clinical features such as age, sex, recurrence and progression as well as histopathological features. The expressions of D2-40, VEGF-C, and VEGF-D have been immunohistochemically examined for the relations with grade and stage of the tumors and for to predict of recurrence and progression.Although the age of patients with papillary urothelial neoplasms has been found positively correlated with grade and invasion (pT) (p?0,001, p=0,01, respectively), there was statistically no differences between male and females in terms of grade and invasion. It has been found that the grade and invasion degree were higher in patients showing recurrence than cases without recurrence (p=0,006, p=0,000, respectively). In 71 cases with recurrence, histological progression has been found in 11 cases and progression of invasion degree in 18 cases.LVD in normal mucosal samples has been found lower than those in neoplastic cases (p=0,003). In tumoral cases, LVD was found to be related with grade and invasion (p=0,000, p=0,001, respectively); however, it was not worthy to predict of the recurrence. Because LVD was related with grade and invasion capacity of the tumors, it could be extracted that LVD is a negative prognostic factor. In addition, increasing VEGF-C expression has been found to be correlated with the decreasing grade and invasion capacity (p=0,026, p=0,034, respectively). On the other hand, no relationship has been found between VEGF-D expression and clinicopathological parameters. Since many studies about VEGF-C and VEGF-D expression in urothelial cancers of the bladder are contradicting each other, it is needed to study in large series and with new antibodies for these growth factors.