Vascular adhesion protein‐1 as indicator of breast cancer tumor aggressiveness and invasiveness

Recent studies suggest that vascular adhesion protein‐1 (VAP‐1), a 180‐KDa homodimeric glycoprotein, may be associated with cancer‐related events including tumor cell migration, motility, invasion, or metastasis. Therefore, this study applies VAP‐1 immunohistochemical staining to demonstrate the invasiveness component of the breast cancer. The VAP‐1 staining results were compared in 148 breast cancer cases to identify possible correlations with clinical status, including age, tumor size, tumor grade, TNM stage, lymphatic invasion, metastasis, recurrence, and survival rate. Immunohistochemical staining results showed VAP‐1 negative or weak staining in normal ducts and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), but these phenotypes were positively associated with a stiffened VAP‐1 that presented at the invasive front of the lesion. Our data demonstrated that VAP‐1 expression was positively associated with lymphatic invasion, distant metastasis, and patient survival in breast carcinoma. Notably, VAP‐1 expression was found to be significantly correlated with the overall survival (p