Angiogenesis as a prognostic factor of pathological stage IA lung adenocarcinoma: developing an angiogenic score

Abstract

Purpose: This work was designed to correlate the expression of markers of tumoral angiogenesis in lung adenocarcinoma as a prognostic factor and create a predictive model with these factors. Patients and methods: A clinical, observational and analytical research study was undertaken. This work sought to describe and compare prognosis value of angiogenic markers of 119 resected patients, classified as pathological stage IA. The tumour angiogenesis analysis was performed, the survival and predictive value of microvascular density (MVD) expression with tumoral relapse and survival were evaluated. Finally, an accurate score, “Angioscore”, was calculated by combining different markers. Results: Low MVD-CD34 is associated with a worse disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer specific survival (CSS). High MVD-CD31 is significantly related to reduce DFS and CSS. High MVC-CD105 is associated with worse clinical outcomes. The predictive capacity of these angiogenic markers independently it is not exact. The “Angioscore” is able to provide better information about patient prognosis (74.8% and 73.7%). Two groups were obtained with the risk value obtained by “Angioscore”. A significant difference in the prognosis of both groups was accomplished (p < 0.001). Being in the multivariate analysis the only independent prognostic factor in patients with lung ADC in stage IA of this series. Conclusion: Tumour angiogenesis is a prognostic factor in early stage lung adenocarcinoma, the analysis of this factor being more accurate using a score, with great predictive value