|
| Patients | Assessment of VEGF expression | Prognostic value of VEGF expression |
|
| 98 stage II ductal breast cancers [26] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF165
Scoring system: 0 = none, 1 = <33%, 2 = 33–66%, 3 = >66% positive tumor cells | VEGF had no prognostic significance for overall survival or disease-free survival |
|
| 48 triple negative breast cancers not receiving systemic adjuvant treatment from 500 primary breast cancers using tissue microarrays [24] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF
Scoring system: cytoplasmic staining intensity was scored from 0 to 3
High expression had score 3 | VEGF had no prognostic significance for 5-year breast-cancer-specific survival |
|
| 125 stage II node-positive invasive ductal carcinomas, NOS 25 stage II node-positive invasive lobular carcinomas [23] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Staining was graded as strong, medium, or weak-to-absent expression | VEGF-C had no prognostic significance for overall survival or disease-free survival |
|
| 172 primary breast cancer [25] | Antibody: anti-VEGF-A
Scoring system: staining intensity was graded from 0 (negative) to 3 (strong intensity)
Positive cases had score 1–3 | VEGF-A had no prognostic significance for recurrence-free survival |
|
| 116 invasive ductal breast cancers [27] | Antibody: anti-VEGF
Scoring system: positive cases had >10% positive tumor cell staining | VEGF-A had no prognostic significance for overall survival in multivariate analysis |
|
| 52 infiltrating ductal carcinomas, 4 intraductal carcinomas, 3 mucinous adenocarcinomas,1 medullary carcinoma, 1 inflammatory breast carcinoma [38] | Antibody: anti-VEGF-C, anti-VEGF-D
Scoring system: sum of staining intensity (0 = negative to 3 = strong) and percentage of positive cells (0 = 0%, 1 = 1–10%, 2 = 11–30%, 3 = 31–50%, 4 = 51–100%)
High-expression group had score 4–7 | High expression of VEGF-C/D had poorer disease-free survival and overall survival |
|
| 59 invasive ductal carcinomas, NOS 11 other types of invasive breast cancer [39] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Scoring system: negative, 1+ (focal expression in <5%), 2+ (focal expression in 5–20%), 3+ (diffuse expression in >20%)
High-expression group had score above 2+ | Shorter disease-free survival and overall survival for high expression of VEGF-C in univariate analysis |
|
| 215 high-risk primary breast cancers with extensive axillary involvement [28] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF
Staining intensity was graded from 0 to 3+
Positive cases are those having any tumor areas with positive staining | VEGF had no prognostic significance for overall survival or relapse-free survival |
|
| 177 invasive breast cancers [40] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF-A, anti-VEGF-D, polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Scoring system: H score (multiplying percentage of positive carcinoma cells by the staining intensity graded 0 to 3)
High-expressing tumors had score above the median score | (1) Shorter overall survival for high expression of VEGF-A in univariate analysis
(2) Shorter overall survival and disease-free interval for high expression of VEGF-C in univariate and multivariate analyses
(3) No prognostic significance for VEGF-D
(4) Tumours with high expression of both VEGF-A and -C had significantly shorter overall survival |
|
| 130 invasive ductal carcinomas, 30 invasive lobular carcinomas [41] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-B, monoclonal anti-VEGF-A (165, 189, 206 a.a.)
Scoring system: 0 (no or weak staining in <10%), 1 (weak-to-moderate staining in 11–20%), 2 (moderate-to-strong staining 21–50%), 3 (strong staining in >50%)
Positive cases had score above 2 | (1) VEGF-A had no prognostic significance
(2) Unfavorable disease-free and overall survival for VEGF-B-positive cases in lymph node metastases cases |
|
| 136 invasive ductal carcinomas, 31 invasive lobular carcinomas [42] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C, polyclonal anti-VEGF-D
Scoring system: positive cases had at least 10% immunoreactive tumor cells | Poorer overall survival for VEGF-C-positive cases
VEGF-D had no prognostic significance |
| 80 invasive ductal carcinomas, 15 ductal carcinomas in situ, 5 lobular carcinomas in situ, 14 invasive lobular carcinomas, 6 medullary carcinomas, 2 tubular carcinomas [43] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF
Scoring system: 0 = none, 1+ = < 5%, 2+ = 5–50%, 3+ = >50% positive tumor cells
High reactivity cases had score above median value | Overexpression of VEGF had both unfavorable overall survival and disease-free survival |
|
| 114 breast cancers [29] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF165
Scoring system: staining intensity was graded from 0 (no staining) to III (most intense staining) | VEGF had no prognostic significance for disease-free survival or cancer survival |
|
| 100 invasive ductal carcinomas, NOS, 19 invasive lobular carcinomas [30] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Staining was graded as strong, medium, or weak expression | VEGF-C had no prognostic significance for overall survival or disease-free survival |
|
| 323 invasive breast carcinomas [31] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF
Scoring system: sum of staining intensity (0 = negative to 3 = strong) and percentage of positive cells (0 = 0%, 1 = 1–25%, 2 = 26–50%, 3 = >50%)
Positive cases had score 4–6 | VEGF was not associated with incidence of relapse or death |
|
| 181 invasive ductal carcinomas, 22 invasive lobular carcinoma, 8 invasive ductal and lobular (mixed) carcinomas, 5 ductal in situ carcinomas, 1 medullary carcinoma [32] | Antibody: anti-VEGF-C
Scoring system: cytoplasmic staining was graded negative (negative), 1+ (10–39%), 2+ (40–69%), 3+ (>70%) | VEGF-C had no prognostic significance for disease-free survival |
|
| 238 invasive breast cancers not receiving tamoxifen from 500 primary breast cancers using tissue microarrays [22] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF
Scoring system: cytoplasmic staining intensity was scored from 0 to 3
High staining intensity group had score 3 | VEGF had no prognostic significance for relapse-free survival |
|
| 87 primary breast cancers [33] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Scoring system: 0 (no staining or cytoplasmic staining in <10%), 1+ (faint cytoplasmic staining in >10%), 2+ (weak-to-moderate complete cytoplasmic staining in >10%), 3+ (strong complete cytoplasmic staining in >10%)
Positive cases had score 2+ or 3+ | VEGF-C had no prognostic significance for disease-free survival or overall survival |
|
| 224 invasive breast cancers using tissue microarrays [44] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF
Scoring system: staining intensity was graded from 0 (negative) to 3 (intense intensity), and the percentage of positive cells was recorded (0 = 0%, 1 = <1%, 2 = 1–10%, 3 = 10–50%, 4 = 50–90%, 5 = >90%)
Positive cases are those having any positive staining | VEGF-A-positive cases had favorable disease-free survival at 10-year followup in multivariate analysis |
|
| 207 invasive breast carcinomas [34] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-D
Scoring system: 0 = negative, 1 = weak focal staining, 2 strong focal/widespread moderate staining, 3 = strong widespread staining
Positive cases had score 2 or 3 | VEGF-D had no prognostic significance for overall survival or relapse-free survival |
|
| 96 invasive ductal carcinomas, 9 other invasive carcinomas [45] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF-D
Scoring system: positive cases had more than 10% tumor cells with cytoplasmic staining | (1) Positive VEGF-D cases had poorer disease-free survival in univariate and multivariate analyses
(2) Positive VEGF-D cases had poorer overall survival in univariate analysis |
|
| 228 invasive unilateral breast carcinomas [35] | Antibody: monoclonal anti-VEGF (isoforms 121, 165 and 189)
Scoring system: positive cases had more than 1% immunoreactive tumor cells | VEGF had no prognostic significance for overall survival or relapse-free survival |
|
| 114 invasive ductal carcinomas, 9 other invasive carcinomas [46] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Scoring system: positive cases had more than 10% immunoreactive tumor cells | Positive VEGF-C cases had poorer disease-free survival and overall survival in univariate analysis |
| 99 invasive ductal carcinomas, NOS [36] | Antibody: anti-VEGF
Scoring system: positive cases had more than 10% tumor cells with membrane or cytoplasmic staining | VEGF had no prognostic significance for overall survival or relapse-free state |
|
| 107 primary invasive breast carcinomas [47] | Antibody: anti-VEGF-A, anti-VEGF-C, anti-VEGF-D
Scoring system: computer-assisted image analysis based on the percentage of immunostained surfaces and mean optical density
High-expression group had value equal to or higher than median | (1) High-VEGF-A-expression cases had worser disease-free survival
(2) VEGF-C or VEGF-D had no prognostic significance
(3) Cases with both low VEGF-A and VEGF-C expression had better disease-free survival |
|
| 242 node-negative breast cancer [37] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF isoforms 121, 165, 189, and 206
Scoring system: high-expression cases had >40% immunopositive tumor cells | VEGF had no prognostic significance for disease-free survival or overall survival |
|
| 94 invasive breast cancer, 4 noninvasive cancer [48] | Antibody: polyclonal anti-VEGF-C
Scoring system: positive cases had over 10% tumor cells stained positively | VEGF-C-positive group had poorer disease-free survival |
|
