August 2026, Volume 4, Issue 8

Author

B Senthil, P Gowri and G Veera Raghavan

Abstract

Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a critical mediator of tumor angiogenesis and has been implicated in the growth, invasion, and metastatic spread of invasive breast cancer. In this work, VEGF expression in invasive breast cancer was assessed using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and associated with known clinicopathological factors. Methods: The Department of Pathology at Government Kilpauk Medical College in Chennai carried out this cross-sectional study over the course of eighteen months, from January 2023 to June 2024. Included all 43 histologically verified cases of invasive breast cancer from modified radical mastectomy specimens that had not received any prior radiation or chemotherapy by consecutive sampling. VEGF immunopositivity (cytoplasmic, brown staining) was measured semi-quantitatively at 40x magnification and linked with age, tumor size, histological grade, lymph node status, and co-expression of ER, PR, HER2/neu, and Ki-67 using the chi-square test (significance at p<0.05). Results: VEGF positive was reported in 29/43 instances (67.44%; p<0.001). Positivity increased with advancing age (100% in 61-70 years) and bigger tumor size (100% in tumors >5 cm; p<0.001), and was substantially linked with lymph node status and HER2/neu, ER, and PR co-expression (all p<0.001). VEGF expression and histological grade did not significantly correlate (p>0.05). Conclusion: VEGF is frequently expressed in invasive breast cancer and correlates significantly with tumor size and lymph node status - recognized indicators of aggressive disease - indicating its potential relevance as a prognostic biomarker and a target for anti-angiogenic therapy.