Association of VCAM-1 overexpression with oncogenesis, tumor angiogenesis and metastasis of gastric carcinoma

Table 1 Association of expressions of VCAM-1 and MVD with pathological features of gastric carcinoma

Pathological chacteristics	n	Positive VCAM-1(%)	MVD(¯x ± s)
Size of tumor
< 3 cm	10	6	37.1 ± 12.1
3 cm	31	25	39.5 ± 12.7
Location
Lower third	10	7	39.4 ± 7.3
Middle third	20	17	36.2 ± 11.3
Upper third	11	7	41.4 ± 13.3
Depth of invasion
Mucosa and submucosa	11	5	28.4 ± 8.1
Muscle and subserosa	12	9	36.9 ± 10.7
Serosa	18	17a	49.6 ± 15.1b
Clinicopathologic stage
I	7	3	29.3 ± 3.54
II	12	7	33.9 ± 9.3
III	16	15	46.3 ± 10.3
IV	6	6c	55.4 ± 8.1d
Lymph node metastasis
Present	28	26	45 ± 9.8
Absent	13	5e	28.5 ± 5.5f

MVD and expression of VCAM-1 had no significant difference in the size, location. The rate of positive VCAM-1 expression and MVD were positively correlated with depth of invasion (^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.05 respectively). There was a significant difference between the rate of positive VCAM-1 expression, MVD and clinic pathological stage (^cP < 0.05,

^dP < 0.05). The rate of positive VCAM-1 expression and MVD were significantly higher than that in those without lymph node metastasis (^eP < 0.05,

^fP < 0.05 respectively).

Table 2 Soluble levels of VCAM-1, CEA in gastric cancer patients, ulcer patients and control group

	n	Soluble VCAM-1(μg/ml) (¯x ± s)	CEA
Gastric cancer	41	878 ± 46a	4.7 ± 0.43
I-II	17	764 ± 24b	4.1 ± 0.23
III-IV	24	1006 ± 78c	4.9 ± 0.31
Ulcer	8	301 ± 21	4.5 ± 0.41
Control	25	297 ± 35	2.3 ± 0.28

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.05,

^cP < 0.05, (vs control group).

Table 3 Concentrations of soluble VCAM-1 and CEA at preoperative and postoperative stages

	¯x ± s (ng/L)	P
sVCAM-1
preoperative	878 ± 46
postoperative	578 ± 39	0.0001
CEA
preoperative	10.3 ± 18.4
postoperative	6.3 ± 11.5	0.0031

Serum VCAM-1 and CEA levels decreased significantly after radical resection of the primary tumor (P < 0.05).