Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)‎ in squamous bladder cancer with different grades of differentiation : Immunohistochemical study

Abstract EN

Objective : The present investigation was designed to estimate the immunohistochemical expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder in correlation to the grade of differentiation as a prognostic parameters and to determine whether the expression is correlated with the increased incidence of this type of cancer.

Methods : Formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks from 20 (15 male and 5 female) patients with squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder were submitted in this study in the Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Kufa University.

A group of 10 patients with benign bladder lesions (cystitis) was included in this study as a control group.

The Avidin-Biotin Complex (ABC) method was employed for immunohistochemical detection of VEGF.

Statistically Chi square and Correlation- Regression (R) tests were used by the help of SPSS, using the P value significance at level equal or less than 0.05 and R value at level 0.3.

Results : VEGF immuno-expression was positive in 40 % of squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder but was negative in all benign bladder lesions (cystitis) with significant difference (P < 0.05).

VEGF immunostaining was positively correlated with grade of squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder but the findings were not statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusion : These findings support the role of VEGF in the carcinogenesis of squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder regarding its biological behavior and aggressiveness, and thus VEGF overexpresion could be considered as a poor prognostic parameter in squamous bladder cancer.

No positive correlation has been noticed between immunohistochemical expression and the high incidence of squamous cell carcinoma of urinary bladder.