Expression of Angiopoietin-2 and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-3 Correlates with Lymphangiogenesis and Angiogenesis and Affects Survival of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Both Ang-2 and VEGFR-3 are major regulators of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, respectively, and thus may affect prognosis of OSCC. We sought to determine the associations between Ang-2 and VEGFR-3 expression and survival of OSCC. METHODS: Ang-2 and VEGFR-3 expression was determined immunohistochemically in tumor tissues from 112 patients with OSCC; OSCC-adjacent noncancerous oral tissue from 85 OSCC patients; and normal oral mucosa from 37 cancer-free individuals. A log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare survival among different groups with expression of Ang-2 and VEGFR-3. RESULTS: Ang-2 and VEGFR-3 expression was upregulated in OSCC compared to nontumor tissue (all P<0.05). High Ang-2 expression positively correlated with microvessel density (MVD) (P<0.01), and high VEGFR-3 expression positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (P<0.01) and lymphatic vessel density (LVD) (P<0.01). The patients with high expression of Ang-2 alone or in combination with VEGFR-3 had a significantly worse survival than in patients with low expression of Ang-2 or any other co-expression status (all P<0.05), respectively. Furthermore, multivariable analysis showed that patients with high expression of Ang-2 alone or in combination with VEGFR-3 had a significantly increased risk of death compared with those with low expression of Ang-2 or any other co-expression status (HR, 2.7, 95% CI, 1.1–6.2 and 5.0, 1.3–15.4, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that increased expression in tumors of Ang-2 may individually, or in combination with VEGFR-3, predict poor prognosis of OSCC.