Expression analysis of the growth factor receptors and ligands EGFR, VEGF-C, VEGF-D and VEGFR3, demonstrates that VEGF-D expression correlates with human colorectal cancer aggress…

Purpose: Inappropriate growth factor-dependent signaling contributes to neoplasia. The current analysis explored the impact of high-level expression of the growth factor receptors EGFR and VEGFR3 and the VEGFR3 ligands VEGF-C and VEGF-D on disease progression and prognosis in human colorectal cancer. Furthermore, as the use of EGFR-targeted agents represents a clinically-validated therapeutic approach for the treatment of lymph node positive advanced colorectal cancer, the expression of the lymphangiogenic factors in response to the modulation of EGFR signaling was investigated using in vitro and in vivo model s…