Lymphatic Vessel Density in the Normal-Looking Columnar Epithelium Adjacent to and Distant from Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia and Prostate Cancer Assessed in Whole-Mount Sections

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the lymphatic vessel density (LVD) in radical prostatectomy using the lymphatic marker D2-40 and analyze if LVD is variable within the whole-mounting samples of prostatectomy in different areas of carcinoma, high- and low-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and nodular hyperplasia. STUDY DESIGN: From each of the 4 cases used for this study, we divided the whole-mount slides into 12 regions. Forty-eight regions were examined immunohistochemically. The LVD of D2-40 positive endothelial cells into the radical prostatectomy was estimated by drawing the areas of interest (lymphatic endothelium) dispersed along the prostate zone to facilitate the counting of the positive cells within prostate areas (normal-looking cells, hyperplastic cells, intraepithelial neoplasia and invasive neoplasia). The results were expressed as number of cells per area. RESULTS: LVD counting for nodular hyperplasia of prostate, low-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and prostate carcinoma was 1.29, 1.20, 1.26 and 1.13, respectively. The statistical analysis (p = 0.265) showed an absence of significant differences of LVD analysis among the lesions. CONCLUSIONS: LVD in prostatic cancer does not appear importantly enhanced around tumoral stroma. The lymphatic vessel distribution was quite similar around malignant and nonmalignant areas within the same prostatectomy samples