진행성 위암의 예후에 있어서 종양맥관 형성의 의의

In spite of the application of an aggressive surgical approach and the detection of disease in an early stage, the 5-year survival rate of patients with acllvanced gastric cancer is still low. It is well known that the survival of the disease is closely related to TNM classification. But it is not sufficient enough to identify poor prognostic subgroups. Recently substantial evidence suggests that tumor angiogenesis in several types of cancer can be an independent prognostic predicto,. In this study we investigated how tumor angiogenesis in gastric cancer correlated with stage, grade of cell differentiation and survival. We highlighted the vessel by staining their endothelial cells immunocytochemicailly for factor VIII and counted thern in the most dense areas of neovascularization in 46 surgical specimens of advanced gastric cancer. The mean counts in patients with stage I, II and III were 19+- 7.31+-11 and 43+-30 respectively. But microvessel counts did not correlated significantly with grade of cell diifferentiation and survival. In conclusion, the number of microvessels per 200X fielid of light microscope in the areas of the rnost intensive neovasrularization in an advanced gastric cancer may be one predictor that reflects prognosis but needs further study whether it could be an independent prognostic predictor or not.