Immunohistochemical Detection of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in Colorectal Tumors among Sudanese Patients

Abstract

This is a hospital based descriptive retrospective case study aimed to detect the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in benign and malignant colorectal tumors and colorectal carcinoma features (grade). The study was conducted in Khartoum-Sudan in Al Safwa laboratory during the period from November 2019 to January 2020. Seventy eight archival formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks were used. They have been selected as thirty nine benign colorectal tumors and thirty nine malignant colorectal tumors. The targeted area from tissue blocks was determined and collected for processing by tissue microarray (TMA). Sections were stained by immunohistochemistry for VEGF expression. The data obtained were analyzed by SPSS computer program. The mean age of the patients was 43 years and ages of them ranged between 3 years to 81 years and divided as less than or equal 40 years old has frequency of 29(37%) and more than 40 years old has frequency of 49(63%). In this study male were 52 (67%) while female were 26 (33%). All the 39 tissues that constituted benign histopathological diagnosis expressed negative VEGF staining, and from the 39 cancerous tissues 7 (18%) showed positive cytoplasmic staining, so the relation between the expression pattern of VEGF and the histopathological diagnosis was found to be statistically significant (P value = 0.006). The results shows that out of 7 positive samples for VEGF expression, 2 (29%) samples were positive from low grade adenocarcinoma, 2 (29%) samples were positive from moderate grade adenocarcinoma, 3 (42%) samples were positive from high grade adenocarcinoma, so the relation between VEGF expression pattern and histological grading one of the clinicopathological features of CRC was insignificant (P value = 0.562). The study conclude that the expression of VEGF has a significant correlation with malignant form of CRC tumors, with no association with grade of CRC.