Abstract: Objective: To exploring the influence of raloxifene on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Ki-67, CD34 antigen expression in postmenopausal women with breast carcinoma. Methods: Twenty postmenopausal patients with TMN stage II, estrogen receptor(+) breast cancer was involved in this research, and all of them took raloxifene 60mg/d for 21 days. Immunohistochemistry was carried out in tumor samples to evaluate VEGF, Ki-67, CD34 antigen expression prior to and following raloxifene treatment, respectively. Result: VEGF-positive expression rate was 85% prior to raloxifene treatment, while only 30% (χ2=12.38, P<0.01) following treatment; and the mean percentage of Ki-67-positive nuclei was (19.36±1.66)% and (12.24±1.42)% (t=2.86, P<0.01) prior to and following raloxifene treatment, respectively. The mean number of microvessels was 46.25±3.88 prior to raloxifene therapy and 23.64±1.53 (t=2.93, P<0.01) following therapy. Conclusion: Raloxifene has an effect of depressing cell proliferation activity and formation of new blood vessels in breast carcinoma tissue of postmenopausal women, and the effect might be achieve through depressing VEGF expression of tumor tissue.

Key words: breast carcinoma, raloxifene, VEGF, Ki-67, CD34, Immunohistochemistry