An Immunohistochemical Study of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in Meningioma and Its Correlation with Tumor Grade

Meningiomas are one of the most common primary brain tumors and the most common intradural spinal tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor has been demonstrated to play an important role in the stimulation of angiogenesis in many types of cancers. Agents that block the vascular endothelial growth factor pathway, such as bevacizumab, have the capability to decrease vascular permeability. The aim of this study is to evaluate vascular endothelial growth factor expression in meningioma patients. This retrospective, cross-sectional study used an immunohistochemical method to assess vascular endothelial growth factor expression in meningioma. We randomly chose 83 paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of meningiomas diagnosed during 2015 from the files of the Pathology Laboratory of Al-Zahra Hospital, affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. All of the meningioma samples (100%) were vascular endothelial growth factor-immunoreactive. There was a vascular endothelial growth factor score of 1 in 6 (7.2%) cases, a score of 2 in 54 (65.1%) cases, and score of 3 in 23 (27.7%) cases. A correlation existed between vascular endothelial growth factor score and tumor grade. However, there was no correlation between vascular endothelial growth factor score and age and sex of patients. Our study demonstrated a significant role of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in the pathogenesis of peritumoral brain edema in low- and high-grade meningiomas as well as in recurrence or malignant transformation. Thus, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents such as bevacizumab might be useful as a treatment of this condition.