Figure 1.
Representative high and low perivascular stromal cell densities and microvessel density (MVD) measured by immunostaining for alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and CD34 in tissue microarrays of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and pancreatic cancer (PC).
Case 85 (HCC) and PC case 36 showed high α-SMA density (A, G) and MVD-CD34 values (D, J); whereas, HCC case 226 and PC case 19 showed low α-SMA density (B, H) and MVD (E, K) (×200). (C, F, I, L) Average α-SMA density and MVD of high or low risk groups in HCC and PC. *Independent samples t test showed a statistical difference between the two groups.
Figure 2.
Distribution of perivascular stromal cells and endothelial cells (ECs) on tumor vascular walls, measured by alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and CD34 as markers for immunostaining in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and pancreatic cancer (PC) tissues.
(Paired A and B, C and D) Immunohistochemical staining of serial sections showed a coexpression pattern of α-SMA and CD34 (×200).
Table 1.
Relationship between tumor α-SMA-positive cell density and microvessel density and clinicopathological features.
Figure 3.
Cumulative overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) curves of patients with low or high tumor alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) density, microvessel density (MVD), and their combination.
(A, B, I, J) The α-SMA density was associated with neither OS nor RFS. (C, D, K, L) Low MVD was correlated with prolonged OS and RFS. (E, F, M, N) Patients in each cohort were classified into four groups according to their intratumoral α-SMA density and MVD. (G, H, O, P) The predictive values of marker combination and other risk factors identified by multivariate analysis were studied by receiver operating characteristic analysis (see Results for details). UICC, International Union against Cancer.
Table 2.
Univariate and multivariate analysis of factors associated with survival and recurrence.
Figure 4.
Cumulative (A) overall and (B) recurrence-free survival curves from the combination of tumor alpha-smooth muscle actin density and microvessel density in an independent test pancreatic cancer cohort 3.
Table 3.
Prognostic values of variables for death and disease recurrence by receiver operating characteristic analysis.
Figure 5.
Intensity of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) or carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX) expression in different patient subgroups by the combination of tumor alpha-smooth muscle actin density and microvessel density.
The indicator of tumor hypoxia were HIF-1α and CA IX, and their intensities were divided into four groups, as described. The HIF-1α or CA IX density was greatest in group I and lowest in group IV for both (A) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cohort 1, and (B) pancreatic cancer (PC) cohort 2; (p<0.001 and p = 0.008 for HIF-1α, and p = 0.012 and p<0.001 for CA IX, respectively). *Compared with group I., and**compared with group III; both p<0.05. IOD, integrated optical density.