CD34-positive staining in prostate biopsy specimens predicts a poor prognosis of prostate cancer together with mast cell infiltration

5340 Introduction and objectives: Mast cells and macrophages infiltrating into cancer tissues have been reported to play some roles in cancer progression. Tumor-infiltrating mast cells have been reported to produce some angiogenic factors such as fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2, vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and interleukin (IL)-8. These factors are all involved in tumor-associated angiogenesis. For prostate cancer (PCA), prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating innate immune cells has not been well studied yet. In the present study, we have examined the correlation between CD34-positive staining together with tumor-infiltrating mast cell count and the prognosis of PCA using the needle biopsy specimens.
 Materials and methods: Cancer-positive needle biopsy specimens from 104 PCA patients were used for immunostaining. Biopsy specimens were immunohistochemically labeled for vascular endothelial cells with monoclonal (CD34) antibody and for tumor-infiltrating mast cells with monoclonal antibody against mast cell-specific tryptase. For systematic counting of tumor-infiltrating mast cells, 3 ocular measuring fields, each real area of 0.06175 mm2, were randomly chosen under a microscope at a power of x 400 within a cancer. CD34-positive cells were evaluated using an image-analyzing software.
 Results: Median value of CD34-positive staining was 1.494. The prognosis of patients with higher CD34 levels was significantly worse than those with lower levels (p