ANGIOGENESIS IN BRONCHIAL BIOPSIES OF SYMPTOMATIC SMOKERS WITH AND WITHOUT LUNG CANCER

Pathological angiogenesis has been demonstrated in lung cancer and in chronic airway inflammatory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and COPD. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the degree of bronchial angiogenesis in non-neoplastic mucosa of sympthomatic cigarette smokers could be influenced by the presence of a concomitant lung cancer. An immunohistochemical study was performed on GMA embedded bronchial biopsies obtained from 37 smokers: 17 without lung cancer (9 with chronic bronchitis, 8 with COPD), 20 with a contralateral non-small cell lung cancer (10 with chronic bronchitis, 10 with COPD). The number of vessels and the percentage of vascular area in the lamina propria were assessed using monoclonal antibody against CD31. An image processing and analysis system was used to quantify the immunohistochemical data. The study was conformed to the declaration of Helsinki and all patients gave their written informed consent. Our data show that the number of vessels and the percentage of vascular area in the lamina propria are not significantly different in smokers with and without contralateral lung cancer (p = 0.341 and 0.534 respectively). The results of the study suggest that the presence of lung cancer does not influence the degree of bronchial angiogenesis in non-neoplastic airways of smokers with chronic bronchitis or COPD.