Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in angiogenesis, which is associated with tumor progression or metastasis.
Patients and methods: Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in 109 patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma. Cox's proportional hazards regression analysis was used to identify the multivariate predictive value of the prognostic factors.
Results: High VEGF expression was found in 69 patients (63%) and low VEGF expression in 40 patients (37%). VEGF overexpression correlated with Ki-67 and p53 overexpressions (p=0.0034 and 0.0065, respectively). High VEGF expression was significantly associated with advanced stage (stage III and IV)(p=0.048). The 5-year relapse-free survival (RFS) rate of patients with high VEGF expression (20%) was significantly lower than that of patients with low VEGF expression (76%) (p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis revealed that VEGF expression and stage grouping were independent predictors for RFS (p<0.0001 and 0.04, respectively).
Conclusion: VEGF expression plays an important role in tumorprogression.