Microvascular Invasion of Testicular Nonseminomatous Germ Cell Tumors: Implications of Separate Evaluation of Lymphatic and Blood Vessels

Abstract

Lymphovascular invasion in LYVE-1 stained sections was the most important predictive parameter for metastasis at diagnosis, suggesting greater relevance of the lymphatic system in metastatic dissemination of testicular nonseminomatous germ cell tumors. Vascular endothelial cell specific markers provide higher diagnostic accuracy for microvascular invasion. Our results may impact the current concept of microvascular invasion used for risk stratification of clinical stage 1 testicular nonseminomatous germ cell tumors.