Aberrant overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is associated with aggressive clinical behavior

Naomi Y Jiang¹, Bruce A Woda², Liping Zhang², Suyang Hao², Karen A Dresser², Di Lu<sup>2

1</sup>Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Worcester, MA, USA; ²Department of Pathology, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, MA, USA

Abstract: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. In this study, we studied vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in ­pancreatic adenocarcinoma by immunohistochemical staining. Clinical follow-up and survival data were analyzed. We determined that VEGF was aberrantly overexpressed in a subset of primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Statistically, VEGF overexpression was associated with higher stage, higher grade, and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001, P = 0.012, and P < 0.005, respectively). Additionally, patients of this subset had a much shorter overall survival than patients without VEGF overexpression, as evidenced by Kaplan–Meier plots and the log-rank test (P = 0.001). The 5-year overall survival rate was 17% in patients with VEGF overexpression compared to 52% in patients without VEGF overexpression. The median survival was only 13 months for patients with VEGF overexpression compared to 65 months for patients without. In conclusion, VEGF is a biomarker that identifies a subset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with aggressive clinical behavior.

Keywords: pancreatic adenocarcinoma, VEGF, cancer