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Anatomical specificity of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in glioblastomas: a voxel-based mapping analysis

  • Functional Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a common genetic alteration in malignant gliomas and contributes to the angiogenesis of tumors. This study aimed to investigate the anatomical specificity of VEGF expression levels in glioblastomas using voxel-based neuroimaging analysis.

Methods

Clinical information, MR scans, and immunohistochemistry stains of 209 patients with glioblastomas were reviewed. All tumor lesions were segmented manually and subsequently registered to standard brain space. Voxel-based regression analysis was performed to correlate the brain regions of tumor involvement with the level of VEGF expression. Brain regions identified as significantly associated with high or low VEGF expression were preserved following permutation correction.

Results

High VEGF expression was detected in 123 (58.9 %) of the 209 patients. Voxel-based statistical analysis demonstrated that high VEGF expression was more likely in tumors located in the left frontal lobe and the right caudate and low VEGF expression was more likely in tumors that occurred in the posterior region of the right lateral ventricle.

Conclusion

Voxel-based neuroimaging analysis revealed the anatomic specificity of VEGF expression in glioblastoma, which may further our understanding of genetic heterogeneity during tumor origination. This finding provides primary theoretical support for potential future application of customized antiangiogenic therapy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funding from the National 973 Program (No. 2015CB755500) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program (No. 2012AA02A508).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 6 Tiantan Xili, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100050, People’s Republic of China

      Xing Fan, Yinyan Wang & Tao Jiang

    2. Department of Neuropathology, Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

      Yinyan Wang

    3. Department of Neuroradiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

      Kai Wang, Jun Ma & Shaowu Li

    4. Departments of Neurosurgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

      Shuai Liu

    5. Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

      Yong Liu

    6. Department of Clinical Oncology, Beijing Academy of Critical Illness in Brain, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

      Tao Jiang

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    1. Xing Fan
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    Correspondence to Shaowu Li or Tao Jiang.

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    We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Tiantan Hospital and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study.

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    We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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    XF, YW and KW contributed equally to this work.

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    Fan, X., Wang, Y., Wang, K. et al. Anatomical specificity of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in glioblastomas: a voxel-based mapping analysis. Neuroradiology 58, 69–75 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-015-1602-9

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-015-1602-9

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