Relationship between microvessel count and clinicopathological characteristics and postoperative survival in patients with pancreatic carcinoma.

Background/aims: The present study aimed to elucidate the relationship between microvessel count (MVC) according to CD34 expression and clinicopathological characteristics or prognosis in pancreatic carcinoma (PC) patients who underwent hepatectomy.
Methodology: CD34 expression was analyzed using immunohistochemical methods. Mean MVC in 5 areas per specimen and clinicopathological factors were consecutively examined in 42 PC patients.
Results: Median MVC for PC patients was 123/mm2, which was applied as a cut-off value. Higher MVC was significantly associated with the advanced Japanese tumor-node-metastasis stage IVa and IVb (p=0.034). Univariate survival analysis identified higher carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and CA19-9 level, infiltrative type on macroscopic examination, invasive ductal carcinoma, node metastasis and higher tumor-node-metastasis classification were significantly associated with poor survival. The 5-year overall survival rate in the higher MVC group tended to be lower than that in the higher MVC group (37 vs. 55%), but not statistically significant (p=0.15).
Conclusions: Tumor MVC might be a candidate prognostic marker of PC patient survival after pancreatectomy and further investigation in a larger series is warranted to clarify the significance of this marker.