Table I.

Associations between clinicopathological findings and expression of VEGF-C in patients with primary lung carcinoma.

Characteristics	No.	Serum VEGF-C levels (pg/ml)		LN VEGF-C levels (mRNA)		Tumor VEGF-C levels (mRNA)
		Concentration	P-value	Concentration	P-value	Concentration	P-value
Age (years)			0.600		0.452		0.302
<60	20	661.5±110.1		59.2±15.9		58.1±16.6
≥60	36	653.2±99.9		56.2±14.3		52.3±17.4
Gender			0.660		0.345		0.409
Male	46	653.2±102.8		58.2±14.6		54.8±16.2
Female	10	676.5±111.5		53.4±13.7		50.2±11.8
Tumor histology			0.793		0.562		0.566
Adenocarcinoma	26	679.4±124.1		46.3±11.6		47.9±12.6
Squamous cell carcinoma	24	672.8±110.6		52.5±13.7		53.4±13.7
Other	6	645.2±139.5		51.5±19.8		50.9±19.8
Histological grade			0.512		0.213		0.205
Well-differentiated	11	627.2±121.0		51.1±13.8		52.1±13.8
Moderately-differentiated	24	685.2±113.5		53.3±14.7		54.8±14.2
Poorly-differentiated	21	719.3±111.0		54.9±13.4		56.7±13.5
Tumor size			0.334		0.589		0.561
Diameter ≤3 cm	13	652.2±84.5		55.4±12.0		53.7±12.8
Diameter >3 cm	43	684.1±108.5		57.9±15.2		59.8±16.5
LNM			0.026		0.004		0.001
Positive	38	697.7±96.9		61.1±14.2		62.3±15.3
Negative	18	532.5±95.9		49.5±12.1		48.2±12.6
Stage			0.017		0.621		0.632
I	16	623.2±109.6		53.2±11.8		54.2±12.8
II	17	632.1±126.5		55.7±12.8		56.8±13.8
III	23	712.2±107.4		59.3±15.3		58.1±16.3

Values for concentrations are presented as median ± SD. VEGF-C, vascular endothelial growth factor-C; LN, lymph node; LNM, lymph node metastases.