High bone marrow angiopoietin-1 expression is an independent poor prognostic factor for survival in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

• Published in: British journal of cancer 2011-09, Vol.105 (7), p.975-982
• Main Authors: Cheng, C-L, Hou, H-A, Jhuang, J-Y, Lin, C-W, Chen, C-Y, Tang, J-L, Chou, W-C, Tseng, M-H, Yao, M, Huang, S-Y, Ko, B-S, Hsu, S-C, Wu, S-J, Tsay, W, Chen, Y-C, Tien, H-F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/250/1620/1342; 692/699/67/1857; 692/699/67/1990/1673; 692/700/1750; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Angiopoietin-1 - genetics; Angiopoietin-1 - metabolism; Angiopoietin-2 - genetics; Angiopoietin-2 - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Bone Marrow - metabolism; Cancer Research; Case-Control Studies; Cohort Studies; Drug Resistance; Epidemiology; Female; Hematologic and hematopoietic diseases; Humans; Immunoenzyme Techniques; Leukemias. Malignant lymphomas. Malignant reticulosis. Myelofibrosis; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Molecular Diagnostics; Molecular Medicine; Myelodysplastic syndromes; Myelodysplastic Syndromes - genetics; Myelodysplastic Syndromes - metabolism; Myelodysplastic Syndromes - mortality; Oncology; Prognosis; Receptor, TIE-2 - genetics; Receptor, TIE-2 - metabolism; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - genetics; Survival Rate; Tumors; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A - genetics; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A - metabolism; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C - genetics; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor C - metabolism; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0007-0920; 1532-1827
• DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2011.340

Background: Angiogenic factors have an essential role in normal and pathologic angiogenesis. However, the clinical implication of angiogenic factor expression in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) remains unclear. Methods: In this study, we sought to investigate the prognostic impact of the expression of genes encoding angiopoietin-1 ( Ang-1 ), Ang-2 , the receptor Tie2 , vascular endothelial growth factor-A ( VEGF-A ) and VEGF-C in the bone marrow (BM) in 208 patients with newly diagnosed primary MDS. Results: BM Ang-1 expression was significantly higher in MDS patients, especially those with higher-risk subtypes, than in normal controls. With a median follow-up time of 32.9 months, the disease transformed to acute leukaemia more frequently in the patients bearing higher Ang-1 expression than in those with lower expression (31.5% vs 18.6%, P =0.023). The MDS patients with higher Ang-1 expression had shorter overall survival than those with lower expression (median 20.8±4.5 months vs 63.3±17.8 months, P