Abstract: [Abstract] Objective   To study the expression of Vascular endothelial growth factor C(Vegf-C),vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3(VegfR-3),lymphatic vessel hyaluronan receptor-1(lyve-1) in gastric cancer, To analyze the possible relationship between the expression of Vegf-C,VegfR-3 and lyve-1 with the lymphangiogenesis and prognosis. Methods  Application of Tissue Microarray Technology, The immunohistochemical technique SP was used to detect the Vegf-C, VegfR-3 and lyve-1 in 125 gastric cancer specimens and 96 normal tissues and 20 patients with benign gastric lesion．The lymphatic vessel density (LVD) was assayed by Podoplanin marks . Results    The positive rate of Vegf-C, VegfR-3 and lyve-1 in gastric cancer tissue were 62.4%,56.0% and 58.4%, higher than those in adjacent normal tissue and in gastric lesion tissue,which were 10.4%,12.5%,9.4% and 20%,30%,25% (P<0.05).The LVD score in gastric cancer was significantly higher than in adjacent normal tissues or benign gastric lesion (P<0.01)(2.98±0.81/4.22±1.09vs1.82±0.63or0.89±0.45),the LVD score in peri-tumoral was higher than in intra-tumoral(P<0.01).There is a positive relationship between expression of Vegf-C,VegfR-3 and lyve-1 with LVD (P<0.05). The positive expression of three indexes were the risk factors of lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis(P<0.05). The negative expression of three indexes also had a long 5 year survival rates(P<0.05). Conclusion   Vegf-C, VegfR-3 and lyve-1 protein positively highly expressed in gastric cancer tissue,which were risk factors influence the prognosis of gastric cancer.The positive expression of three indexes can be used to predict the prognosis and lymphangiogenesis of gastric cancer.

Key words: stomach neoplasms, carcinoma, Vegf-C, VegfR-3, angiogenesis, prognosis, lyve-1, 组织微阵列技术(TMA)