Expression of Ki-67, P53, and VEGF in pediatric neuroblastoma

Introduction:Neuroblastoma (NB) is a neuroectodermal tumor derived from neural crest cells. It is thesecond most common pediatric malignant tumor. The biological and clinical behavior of NBis very heterogenous. This study was undertaken to evaluate the expression of Ki-67, P53,and VEGF markers in tissues obtained from NB patients with different histologic types andstaging.Material & method:Tissue microarray (TMA) blocks were constructed from paraffin blocks of the tumor tissue.Immunohistochemical staining was performed on TMA sections to detect the expression ofeach marker. The association between the expression, intensity and percent of the staining ofthese markers and tumor characteristics and also clinicopathological parameters of patientswas then analyzed.Results:We had 18 patients with NB, one patient with ganglioneuroblastoma (GNB) and one patientwith ganglioneuroma. The high and moderate expression of VEGF was found in 5% (1/20)and 65% (13/20) of patients, respectively, which was significantly correlated with age,prognosis and histologic types (all P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with MKI (mitosiskaryorrhexisindex). High level of Ki-67 expression was found in 40% (8/20) of cases, whichshowed a trend correlation with histologic types (P=0.07). P53 expression was observed in10% (2 /20) of patients, which showed a trend correlation with MKI (P=0.07).Conclusion:VEGF expression, as an important risk factor, in neuroblastoma might be correlated with thedevelopment and progression of NB. It can serve as one of the valuable marker for prognosisof NB and anti-angiogenic targeted therapy.

کلیدواژه ها:

Ki-67 ، P53 ، VEGF ، Neuroblastoma