Comparative prognostic relevance of breast intra-tumoral microvessel density evaluated by CD105 and CD146: A pilot study of 42 cases

Abstract

Angiogenesis is a key process for metastatic progression. While it has been established that the evaluation of breast tumoral microvessel density by CD105 marker is a potential prognostic parameter, its evaluation by CD146 marker has been poorly studied.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to compare the prognostic value of intra-tumoral microvessel density assayed by CD105 and CD146 in early breast cancer patients.

Methods: 42 women with breast infiltrative ductal carcinoma (I and II-stages) were retrospectively reviewed. Intra-tumoral microvessel density was immunohistochemically examined using antibodies anti-CD105 and CD146 in paraffin-embedded tissues, and their association with classical prognostic-markers, metastatic recurrence, metastasis-free survival and overall survival was analyzed.

Results: High microvessel density assessed by CD146 was significantly associated with a higher risk of developing metastasis (p=0.0310) and a shorter metastasis-free survival (p=0.0197). In contrast, when we used the CD105-antibody, we did not find any significant association. Finally, CD146 showed to be an independent predictive indicator for metastasis-free survival (p=0.0055).

Conclusion: Our data suggest that the intra-tumoral microvessel density evaluated by CD146 may be a more suitable predictor of metastatic development than that evaluated by CD105 in early breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast cancer; CD105; CD146; Intra-tumoral microvessel density; Prognostic significance.