Background and aims: Tumor vascularization has been attracting attention. However, there have been only a few reports on tumor vascularization in pancreatic ductal carcinoma, especially on vascularization depicted by imaging modalities. We investigated the relationship among wide-band Doppler signals, clinicopathological factors, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression.
Methods: Sixty-nine patients with pancreatic ductal carcinoma were investigated. The vascular signals from carcinoma lesions were assessed by contrast-enhanced, wide-band Doppler ultrasonography (dynamic flow). VEGF expression was quantitated by enzyme immunoassay for 28 patients. Depending on the intensity of the signals, the patients were classified into type A (definite vascular signal) or type B (almost no vascular signal).
Results: Type A patients and type B patients accounted for 65% and 35% of patients, respectively. According to multivariate analysis of vascular signal type and clinicopathological factors, liver metastasis occurred significantly more frequently in the type A group. VEGF expression was also significantly higher in the type A group than in the type B group.
Conclusions: Dynamic flow has very high sensitivity for detecting the vascular signals from pancreatic ductal carcinoma. The quantity of vascular signals correlated with tumor characteristics and VEGF.