Assessment of angiogenesis expression and its relationship with prognosis of colorectal cancer by conventional and computer-assisted histopathological image analysis

Abstract

Purpose: To quantify the degree of angiogenesis by conventional method (microvessel density, MVD) and computerized method (endothelial area, EA), and to evaluate their relationships with the prognosis of patients operated on for colorectal adenocarcinoma. Methods: Tumoral angiogenesis was studied by means of an immunohistochemical technique, using CD 34, on 126 patients; to quantify the angiogenesis, MVD (defined as number of microvessels per mm2) and EA measurement (defined as the area occupied by EA in the microscope field). A computerized method, IMAGELab software was utilized to quantify endothelial area. Results: The mean number of microvessels was 128.6 MV/mm2 (SD = 44.5) and the mean EA was 4.3% (SD = 2.1). The Pearson method demonstrated a low correlation coefficient between MVD and EA (r = 0.429). No relationship between MVD and EA was observed with regard to relapse-free interval and overall survival. Conclusion: The histological analysis of angiogenesis expression in patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma can be performed either by computer-assisted image analysis of endothelial area or by conventional microvessels counting. Both methods did not show any significant relationship between these angiogenesis parameters with relapse-free interval and overall survival.