Background: Neuroblastoma (NB), is a neuroectodermal tumor derived from neural crest cells, and it is thesecond most common pediatric malignant tumor. The biological and clinical behavior of NB is very heterogeneous.This study was conducted to evaluate the expression of Ki-67, p53 and VEGF markers in tissues obtained fromNB patients with different histologic types and stage. Materials and Methods: Tissue microarray (TMA) blockswere constructed from paraffin blocks of the NB tissues. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on TMAsections to detect the expression of Ki-67, p53 and VEGF markers. The association between the expression ofthese markers and clinicopathological parameters were then analyzed. Results: We had 18 patients with NB,one patient with ganglioneuroblastoma (GNB) and one with ganglioneuroma. Ki-67 was expressed in 13 (65%)tumors, and negatively correlated with age, prognosis, histologic type and stage of NB (all p<0.05). High andmoderate expression of VEGF was found in 5% (1/20) and 65% (13/20) of the tumors, respectively; and it waspositively correlated with age, prognosis and histologic types (all p<0.05) and negatively correlated with MKI(mitosis-karyorrhexis index). p53 expression was observed in 10% (2/20) of the tumors, which showed a relativecorrelation with MKI (p value=0.07). Conclusions: VEGF as a candidate for anti-angiogenic targeted therapywas correlated with the development and progression of NB; therefore, VEGF along with Ki-67 can serve as avaluable marker for the prognosis of this tumor type.
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