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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2002;124:493-498
© 2002 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

General Thoracic Surgery (GTS)

Correlation between tumor angiogenesis and invasiveness in thymic epithelial tumors

Masaki Tomita, MD, Yasunori Matsuzaki, MD, Masao Edagawa, MD, Masayuki Maeda, MD, Tetsuya Shimizu, MD, Masaki Hara, MD, Toshio Onitsuka, MD

From the Department of Surgery II, Miyazaki Medical College, Kiyotake, Miyazaki, Japan.

Received for publication Aug 16, 2001. Revisions requested Nov 28, 2001; revisions received Feb 1, 2002. Accepted for publication Feb 6, 2002. Address for reprints: Masaki Tomita, MD, PhD, Kihara 5200, Kiyotake, Miyazaki, 889-1692, Japan (E-mail: mtomita{at}post.miyazaki-med.ac.jp).

Objective: Because it is difficult to predict the behavior of thymomas on the basis of morphology alone, other methods for determining tumor aggressiveness must be explored. This study investigated the correlation between angiogenic grade and invasiveness in thymic epithelial tumors.
Methods: Immunohistochemical studies of 46 surgically resected thymic epithelial tumors (18 noninvasive thymomas, 20 invasive thymomas, and 8 thymic carcinomas) were conducted. To highlight the microvessels, we used a specific monoclonal antibody against factor VIII. Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor was determined by using polyclonal antibodies.
Results: Mean microvessel density readings for noninvasive thymomas, invasive thymomas, and thymic carcinomas were 4.6 ± 3.2, 12.4 ± 7.5, and 34.4 ± 16.7, respectively. Stages I, II, III, and IV of thymoma had microvessel density readings of 4.6 ± 3.2, 8.5 ± 4.3, 13.8 ± 7.7, and 22.0 ± 6.8, respectively. These findings suggest a significant correlation between microvessel density and tumor invasiveness. Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in noninvasive thymomas, invasive thymomas, and thymic carcinomas was present in 1 (5.6%) of 18, 11 (55.0%) of 20, and 5 (62.5%) of 8 patients, respectively, thereby indicating a distinct association between vascular endothelial growth factor expression and increased microvessel density. Basic fibroblast growth factor expression was present in only 8 patients.
Conclusions: In patients with thymic epithelial tumors, there appears to be a significant correlation between tumor angiogenesis and invasiveness. Furthermore, our data suggests that this angiogenesis in thymic epithelial tumors might be, at least in part, dependent on vascular endothelial growth factor expression.






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