Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in serum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the pre-therapeutic serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to elucidate the relation between the serum level and clinical characteristics and metastasis of HCC.


METHODS
One-hundred and fifteen HCC patients, 40 patients with benign liver lesions, and 30 healthy control subjects were included in this study. The serum VEGF level was measured with the quantitative sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA, R&D systems).


RESULTS
The serum VEGF levels in the HCC group (465.62 +/- 336.24 pg/ml) was significantly elevated as compared with those in patients with benign liver lesions (159.54 +/- 120.58 pg/ml) and those in normal controls (123.53 +/- 51.84 pg/ml). The VEGF levels were not significantly different between the patients with benign liver lesions and the normal controls. The serum VEGF levels showed a positive rate of 77.4%, 25%, and 3.3% in the HCC patients, benign liver lesion patients and normal controls, respectively. In the 115 HCC patients, the serum VEGF levels in patients with portal vein (PV) emboli (n = 26, 582.76 +/- 441.89 pg/ml), with metastasis (n = 43, 548.29 +/- 438.57 pg/ml) or with large HCC lesions (>/= 5 cm in diameter) (n = 69, 554.43 +/- 369.99 pg/ml) were significantly higher than those without PV-emboli (n = 89, 431.39 +/- 292.84 pg/ml), without metastasis (n = 72, 416.24 +/- 247.27 pg/ml) or with small HCC lesions (n = 42, 328.67 +/- 227.47 pg/ml). The serum VEGF levels in stage I, II, III, IVa and IVb HCC patients were 340.6 pg/ml, 451.55 +/- 307.84 pg/ml, 397.44 +/- 257.18 pg/ml, 486.10 +/- 397.73 pg/ml and 647.93 +/- 344.56 pg/ml, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The pre-therapeutic serum VEGF levels in HCC patients appear to reflect the disease's potential activity of vascular invasion and metastasis.
Zhao
Jianjun
J
Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China. zjj8424@sohu.com
Hu
Jingqun
J
Cai
Jianqiang
J
Yang
Xiaojie
X
Yang
Zhihua
Z
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D016228:Endothelial Growth Factors / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D008222:Lymphokines / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D042442:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
D016228:Endothelial Growth Factors; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008222:Lymphokines; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D042442:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors