Research on the prognosis of different types of microvessels in bladder transitional cell carcinoma

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). However, 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. AIM: To explore the classification of blood vessels in tumors and studied the relationship between MVD and the prognosis of patients with BTCC. METHODS: The tissue mass was detected by tissue microarray and immunohistochemical analysis with monoclonal antibodies against CD31, CD34, CD105, and vascular smooth muscle actin to investigate the MVD in BTCC. The measurement data are expressed as the mean ± SD. The difference between the groups was analyzed by the t-test, the counting data were analyzed by χ(2) test. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve was estimated by the product-limit method. The log-rank time-series test was employed to compare the tumor-free survival curves. RESULTS: The MVD was closely related to the pathological grade, invasive depth, and prognosis of BTCC. Significant differences were found between grade I and grade II, grade II and grade III, superficial and invasive type, and the tumor-free survival group and the recurrence or metastasis group (P < 0.01). 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. CONCLUSION: 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.