Ki-67 Expression, Mast Cells Positive to Tryptase, and Angiogenesis in Gastric Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Surgery

Objectives: Tumor proliferation is guided by neoangiogenesis; microvascular density (MVD) in the tumor micro-envi-ronment increases with the action of different immune system stromal cells such as the mast cells (MCs). Methods: We evaluated Ki-67 proliferation rate, MCs positive to tryptase (MCPT), and MVD in a series of 85 gastric cancer (GC) tissue samples from patients undergoing radical surgery. Results: In tumor tissue, a significant correlation between Ki-67 expression, MCPT, and MVD was found through Pear-son t-test analysis (p ranged from 0.01 to 0.03). Conclusion: Ki-67 expression and MVD may indicate the survival prognosis of patients and MCPT could repre-sent a biological marker of radical surgery and angiogenesis. Furthermore, MCPT could be consid-ered as a target of novel anti-angiogenic therapies in GC patients.