No abstract

Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) is one of the endothelial adhesion molecules that is believed to play a role in tumor progression and metastasis, supporting cancer cell extravasation. Very few studies have been performed on analyzing the contribution of VAP-1 in brain tumor. Astrocytomas are the most common type of brain tumors, which are classified by World Health Organization (WHO) into four grades according to the degree of malignancy. This study was designed to investigate VAP-1 expression level in different astrocytoma grades and its correlation with clinicopathological features as well as prognosis of astrocytoma patients. Eighty-seven patients with different grades of astrocytoma (WHO Grade I-Grade IV) were enrolled in this study. The expression of VAP-1 was assayed by immunohistochemistry. The correlation between VAP-1 expression and clinicopathological features was evaluated by Chi-square test, and overall survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was applied to analyze the independent influence of each parameter on overall survival. The expression level of VAP-1 was significantly higher in diffuse astrocytoma than those of pilocytic astrocytoma (p < 0.0001). In the subgroup analysis, upregulated VAP-1 expression was frequently found in older age patients (≥50 years). The VAP-1 expression was found to be significantly correlated with the overall survival (p = 0.0002). There was a statistical correlation between VAP-1(high) tumors in diffuse astrocytoma and VAP-1(low) tumors in pilocytic astrocytoma (p < 0.0001). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated VAP-1 was an independent predictive marker for poorer prognosis (p = 0.0036). Therefore, VAP-1 could be a promising prognostic biomarker in astrocytoma.

Recent studies suggest that vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1), a 180-KDa homodimeric glycoprotein, may be associated with cancer-related events including tumor cell migration, motility, invasion, or metastasis. Therefore, this study applies VAP-1 immunohistochemical staining to demonstrate the invasiveness component of the breast cancer. The VAP-1 staining results were compared in 148 breast cancer cases to identify possible correlations with clinical status, including age, tumor size, tumor grade, TNM stage, lymphatic invasion, metastasis, recurrence, and survival rate. Immunohistochemical staining results showed VAP-1 negative or weak staining in normal ducts and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), but these phenotypes were positively associated with a stiffened VAP-1 that presented at the invasive front of the lesion. Our data demonstrated that VAP-1 expression was positively associated with lymphatic invasion, distant metastasis, and patient survival in breast carcinoma. Notably, VAP-1 expression was found to be significantly correlated with the overall survival (p < 0.0001). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that VAP-1 expression was a significant independent prognostic indicator of overall survival in breast carcinoma (p < 0.0001). In conclusion, this study suggests that VAP-1 is linked to progression of tumor invasion and metastasis in breast carcinoma. VAP-1 is shown to be a biomarker that can be predict invasive potential and clinical outcome in breast cancer.