Expressions of VEGF and miR-21 in tumor tissues of cervical cancer patients with HPV infection and their relationships with prognosis

Y. Yuan, S.-J. Min, D.-Q. Xu, Y. Shen, H.-Y. Yan, Y. Wang, W. Wang, Y.-J. Tan

Department of Laboratory Medicine, People’s Hospital of Guizhou Province, Guiyang, Guizhou, China. yuyaping46@163.com

---

• Oncology

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and micro-ribonucleic acid-21 (miR-21) in cervical cancer patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and determine the potential relationships with prognosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Expressions of VEGF in cervical cancer tissues and cancer-adjacent tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the expressions of miR-21 and VEGF in both tissues were quantitatively analyzed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Patients with cervical cancer were followed up after operation, and the survival rates of patients with different expression levels of miR-21 and VEGF were compared.

RESULTS: VEGF was expressed in both cervical cancer tissues and cancer-adjacent tissues. The positive expression rate of VEGF in cervical cancer tissues (75.69%) was significantly higher than that in cancer-adjacent tissues (10.45%). RT-PCR results showed that the expression levels of miR-21 and VEGF in cervical cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in cancer-adjacent tissues (p<0.05). Correlation analyses revealed that miR-21 expression was significantly positively correlated with VEGF expression in cervical cancer tissues (r2=0.4174, p<0.0001). Prognostic analyses showed that the 5-year survival rate of patients was relatively high when miR-21 and VEGF were lowly expressed.

CONCLUSIONS: VEGF and miR-21 are highly expressed in tumor tissues of cervical cancer patients with HPV infection. VEGF expression is significantly positively correlated with miR-21 expression, and the high levels of VEGF and miR-21 predict unfavorable prognosis of cervical cancer. Data provide a theoretical support for clinical treatment of cervical cancer patients with HPV infection.

Free PDF Download