Overall survival was favourable for patients with negative PgR status (P=0.017), low-grade tumours (P=0.011), tumours less than 5 cm in size (P=0.0002), no lymph node involvement (P=0.0005), less vessel involvement (P=0.05–0.008), low total VEGF level (P=0.006), high sVEGFR-1 level (P=0.05) and a high S/V ratio (P=0.0002). Here, VEGFA is linked to neoplasm.