Expression and clinical significance of extracellular matrix protein 1 and vascular endothelial growth factor-C in lymphatic metastasis of human breast cancer

Table 7 Correlations between VEGF-C expression and clinicopathological characteristics

Clinicopathological characteristics	N	VEGF-C positive		P	VEGF-C mRNA expression level	P
		N	rate (%)
Age (years)
<60	30	23	76.7		2.41 ± 0.33
≥ 60	11	10	90.9	0.412	3.20 ± 0.76	0.505
Histological grade (invasive ductal)
I+II	16	14	87.5		2.72 ± 0.58
III+IV	20	14	70.0	0.257	2.65 ± 0.45	0.908
Tumor size
T1	15	12	80.0		3.00 ± 0.63
T2	23	18	78.3		2.14 ± 0.31
T3	3	3	100	0.670	4.58 ± 1.68	0.237
Lymph nodal status
N0	22	20	90.9		2.92 ± 0.48
N1	12	8	66.7		2.10 ± 0.53
N2	5	3	60.0		2.51 ± 0.86
N3	2	2	100	0.606	2.65 ± 0.07	0.710
Estrogen receptor status
-	10	9	90.0		2.42 ± 0.63
+~+++	31	24	77.4	0.653	2.69 ± 0.38	0.606
Progesterone receptor status
-	8	6	75.0		2.14 ± 0.75
+~+++	33	27	81.8	0.642	2.75 ± 0.35	0.217
HER2/neu score
- (0-1)	13	10	76.9		2.70 ± 0.66
+ (2-3)	28	23	82.1	0.693	2.60 ± 0.36	0.918

"+", "++" and "+++" for VEGF-C immunochemistry staining was all grouped together as "+"

ISSN: 1471-2407