Journal of Tumor Research
Open Access

Abstract

Prognostic Effect of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor +936C/T Polymorphism on Tumor Growth Pattern and Survival in Patients Diagnosed with Colon Carcinoma

Abrar Ahmad, Nikolaos Venizelos and Victoria Hahn-Strömberg

Introduction: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is considered as endothelial cell-specific mitogen that plays an important role in the process of angiogenesis, thereby affecting the prognosis of tumor as angiogenesis is a crucial phase in tumor growth and metastasis. Accordingly, we carried out a case-control study to assess whether VEGF rs3025039 polymorphism affects the growth pattern and susceptibility to colon carcinoma.

Materials and methods: One hundred and fifty, formaline fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue samples from patients diagnosed with colon carcinoma and the same number of blood controls were used in the present study. VEGF +936 C>T (rs3025039) polymorphism was evaluated by pyrosequencing. Computer image analysis was used to analyse the growth pattern of the colon carcinoma tumor by using cytokeratin-8 stained slides.

Results: A heterozygous genotype TC in rs3025039 polymorphism was found as a significantly protective genotype as compared to homozygous genotypes (CC and TT). However we found no significant correlation between investigated polymorphisms, tumor growth pattern, 5-years survival and other clinicopathological parameters. Conclusion: We concluded that the heterogenous genotype of VEGF rs3025039 polymorphism appears to be a protective factor for colon carcinoma that could be a useful marker in follow-up studies and may be a genetic determinant for colon carcinoma.