Prognostic Significance of Angiogenesis in invasive ductal carcinoma

Background: Angiogenesis is essential for tumor growth and metastasis. Axillary lymphnode status has been the most important prognostic factor in operable breast carcinoma, but it does not fully account for the varied disease outcome. More accurate prognostic indicators would help in selection of patients at high risk for disease recurrence and death who are candidates for systemic adjuvant therapy. Microvessel density  in invasive ductal carcinoma (measures of tumor angiogenesis) is associated with metastasis and thus may be a prognostic indicator. Objective: To correlate intratumoral and peritumoral angiogenic microvessel density with lymphnode metastasis in invasive ductal carcinoma. Material and Methods: It is a cross sectional observational study, carried out at the department of Pathology, BSMMU from January 2016 to December 2017. A total 48 mastectomy samples with axillary nodes from histologically confirmed invasive ductal carcinoma were included in this study. Weidner method was used for calculating micro vessels density. Sections examined to evaluate the density of angiogenic vessels by immuohistological stain with  vWF expression in invasive breast cancer. Correlation between angiogenic vessels density with or without lymphnode metastasis was taken.  Results: In this study angiogenic vessel count is more in the intratumoral area than peritumoural area. There was a positive significant correlation between lymphnode metastasis with micro vessel density in both peritumoral and intratumoral areas in Weidner method in vWF stain. J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll 2023; 15(1): 59-65