ENDOSTATIN AND VEGF EXPRESSION IN HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA: A CLINICAL STUDY

Ahmet Bulent Dogrul¹, Omer Cennet¹, Cenk Sokmensuer², Osman Abbasoglu¹

¹Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of General Surgery - ²Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Pathology

Background: The 4th most common cause of deaths due to cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma. Angiogenesis plays an important role in hepatocellular carcinoma as it is highly vascular tumor. Endostatin and vascular endothelial growth factor are important inhibitors and stimulator of angiogenesis. In this study, it was aimed to analyze the hepatocellular carcinoma operations performed in a university hospital by one team and to evaluate the relationship between survival or clinicopathological features and immunoreactivity of endostatin / vascular endothelial growth factor.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the data of 53 patients who underwent hepatocellular carcinoma surgery between January 2010 and January 2017. Male/female ratio was 3/1 and the median age was 63 (range: 16-82). Vascular endothelial growth factor and endostatin immunoreactivity of the resection material of the patients were examined.

Results: The average tumor diameter was 5.9 cm. The median overall survival was 62 months (range: 46-78). In patients with negative endostatin expression, the tumor diameter was found to be significantly larger (p: 0.007). Patients with negative immunoreactivity of endostatin was found to have poorer disease-free survival (27 vs. 8.5 months(median)) and patients with negative vascular endothelial growth factor immunoreactivity had better overall survival (85,2 vs. 39,6 months(median)) but there was no statistically significant correlation (p: 0.07 and 0.14).

Conclusions: Endostatin immunoreactivity is associated with tumour size in hepatocellular carcinoma patients.  In patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, endostatin and vascular endothelial growth factor immunoreactivity may predict survival and prognosis of the disease.