Purpose: In this study, we investigated the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and tumor microvascular density (MVD) in different histotypes of basal cell skin carcinoma (BCC).
Methods: We used a total 101 histological archival specimens, including superficial, nodular, cystic, keratinocytic, adenoid infiltrative types and cases of metatypical BCC. Routine hematoxylin/eosin (H&E) and immunohistochemical ABC method with NOT AE1/AE3, anti VEGF anti CD34 antibodies were used. VEGF expression in tumor cells was studied in relation to the BCC histotype and demographic characteristics. For statistical analysis ANOVA (F test), Student's t-test, and Karl Pearson coefficient were used.
Results: VEGF expression was significantly lower in the superficial histotype compared to all other types of BCC. No significant difference in VEGF expression between infiltrative, metatypical, adenoid and nodular types was found, but the highest expression of VEGF was seen in the infiltrative and metatypical types. Significantly higher MVD was found in infiltrative, adenoid, metatypical and nodular types.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that the angiogenic potential of BCC correlated with tumor histotype, and histological growth pattern BCC enable distinction of the patients with increased risk of recurrence and / or metastasis.