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Objective: To investigate the relation between microvessel density in surgical specimen and, histopathology and differentiation of tumor, nodal metastasis and stage of disease in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma.
Design: Retrospective analysis of clinical and pathologic data abstracted from hospital charts.
Setting: Government referral-based research hospital. Patients: Twenty two epidermoid and 16 adenocarcinoma cases who underwent lung surgery.
Measurements: The microvessels in tumor specimens were demonstrated by staining endothelial cells immunohistoche- mically for factor VIII using streptoavidin-biotin, alkaline phosphatase complex technique.
Results: Microvessel counts were significantly higher in adenocarcinoma than in epidermoid carcinoma (p=0.0006). In poor differentiated epidermoid carcinoma specimens, angiogenesis was more intense than well and intermediate differentiated specimens (p=0.0064). Although the intensity of angiogenesis was high in patients with mediastinal lymph node metastasis when compared with nonmetastasizing cases, the difference was not significant.
Conclusion: The intensity of angiogenesis is correlated with the grade of differentiation, the lower the differentiation the higher the angiogenesis, and is high in adeno-type of tumor.