AURÉLIE CAZES 1, MARTINE DOUHERET 1 and MARC RIQUET 2
Pathology (1) and 4seohunt.com/www/www.eurolymphology.org. Thoracic Surgery (2) department, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Paris
Corresponding author: Dr Aurélie CAZES
Pathology department, HEGP
20 rue Leblanc
75015 Paris – France
Tel.: +33156093886; fax: +33156093889
aurelie.cazes@egp.aphp.fr
ABSTRACT
The lymphatic system is an important route of metastatic
dissemination in carcinoma. However tumour associated
lymphatic vessels are poorly characterized compared to blood
vessels. Lymphatic vessel density (LVD) and lymphatic vessel
invasion (LVI) have been investigated in some studies of NSCLC,
creating sometimes contradictory data.
We performed a preliminary study of 15 surgically removed
NSCLC to test the feasibility of LVD quantification using a recent
commercially available antibody (D2-40) and analyse the
relationship between LVI and lymph node status. We pointed out
the heterogeneity of lymphatic vessel distribution and the special
need of standardization in the quantification step. Our work
suggests that LVI is a relevant parameter to correlate with lymph
node status but more validation and quantification work is needed.
KEY WORDS: lung cancer, metastasis, lymphangiogenesis.