Tumor stromal vascular endothelial growth factor A is predictive of poor outcome in inflammatory breast cancer

BMC Cancer

Table 1 VEGF-A, VEGF-R1, and VEGF-R2 expression in normal and IBC cases

Variable	Normal cases (%)	IBC cases (%)	P**
VEGF-Ac ^(21,90)
Low expression	11 (52.4)	89 (98.9)
High expression	10 (47.6)	1 (1.1)	<0.01
VEGF-R1c ^(25,96)
Low expression	13 (52.0)	36 (37.5)
High expression	12 (48.0)	60 (52.5)	0.25
VEGF-R2c* ^(20,97)
Low expression	12 (60.0)	32 (33.0)
High expression	8 (40.0)	65 (67.0)	0.04
VEGF-R2n ^(20,97)
Low expression	11 (55.0)	48 (49.5)
High expression	9 (45.0)	49 (50.5)	0.81
VEGF-As ^(20,103)
Low expression	0	39 (37.9)
High expression	20 (100)	64 (62.1)	<0.01
VEGF-R1s ^(25,96)
Low expression	14 (56.0)	38 (39.6)
High expression	11 (44.0)	58 (60.4)	0.18
VEGF-R2s ^(20,100)
Low expression	6 (30.0)	48 (48.0)
High expression	14 (70.0)	52 (52.0)	0.22

* Letter c stands for cytoplasmic, n, nuclear and s, stromal. The numbers of evaluated normal and IBC cases for each variable are shown as superscript in parenthesis; **, Overall P value using Fisher’s exact test. In some cases the tumor epithelial cells were lost during the immunoassay but the stromal component remained and was scored. This explains the discrepancies between the number of cases assessed for the epithelial and stromal contents.

ISSN: 1471-2407