Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 6, 2021; 9(25): 7381-7390
Published online Sep 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i25.7381
Research on the prognosis of different types of microvessels in bladder transitional cell carcinoma
Hai-Bo Wang, Yi Qin, Jin-Yi Yang
Hai-Bo Wang, Jin-Yi Yang, Department of Urology Surgery, Dalian Municipal Friendship Hospital, Dalian 116001, Liaoning Province, China
Yi Qin, Department of Science and Education, Dalian Municipal Friendship Hospital, Dalian 116001, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Wang HB, Yang JY and Qin Y contributed to the design of the study, and wrote this manuscript; All authors proofed the revised manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Dalian Municipal Friendship Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict-of-interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jin-Yi Yang, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Urology Surgery, Dalian Municipal Friendship Hospital, No. 8 Sanba Square, Zhongshan District, Dalian 116001, Liaoning Province, China. yjy13644081800@163.com
Received: June 15, 2021
Peer-review started: June 15, 2021
First decision: June 24, 2021
Revised: July 1, 2021
Accepted: July 14, 2021
Article in press: July 14, 2021
Published online: September 6, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

At present, there is controversy on the role of microvessel density (MVD) in tumors as a prognostic indicator of bladder transitional cell carcinoma (BTCC).

Research motivation

The MVD in tumors is simply classified based on the expression of several different vascular markers, which has not been related to analytical research on the prognosis of patients with BTCC.

Research objectives

This study aimed to explore the classification of blood vessels in tumors and studied the relationship between MVD and the prognosis of patients with BTCC.

Research methods

We investigated the MVD in BTCC through tissue microarray and immunohistochemical analyses. By observing the morphological characteristics of blood vessels and the expression of specific markers, we explored the classification of blood vessels in tumors and studied the relationship between MVD and the prognosis of patients.

Research results

Two different types of microvessels in BTCC were identified as undifferentiated (CD31+/CD34-) vessels and differentiated (CD34+) vessels. The MVD of high-grade undifferentiated vessels was positively correlated with a higher tumor grade and shorter survival time of the patients. In contrast, the MVD of high-grade differentiated vessels was positively correlated with lower-grade tumors and longer survival time of the patients. Multivariate analysis showed that undifferentiated MVD was an independent prognostic factor for patient survival time. An inverse correlation between undifferentiated tumor MVD and differentiated tumor MVD in BTCC was also shown.

Research conclusions

This was the first report on the correlation between two microvascular types and the prognosis of patients with BTCC. The results showed that the classification of blood vessels in BTCC could act as an important prognostic indicator and may also be of great significance in the treatment of cancer.

Research perspectives

Our research is helpful for clinical treatment, and suggests that undifferentiated blood vessels may be a potential target for vascular treatment. Therefore, in research on anti-angiogenic drugs, drug research targeting undifferentiated blood vessels or differentiated blood vessels or both blood vessels may be a future research direction.