Vascular endothelial growth factor levels in ascites between chemonaive and chemotreated patients.
OBJECTIVE
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in malignant ascites have high diagnostic value for their discrimination from ascites of non-malignant origin. However, there have been no reports on the comparison of VEGF levels between malignant ascites of chemonaive and chemotreated patients.


METHODS
VEGF levels were measured in 44 ascites patients (cirrhosis ascites, 10; chemonaive patients, 21; chemotreated patients, 13) and compared to the level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9). The diagnostic parameters of sensitivity, specificity, and correlation among 3 markers were evaluated.


RESULTS
VEGF levels in malignant ascites of chemonaive and chemotreated patients were significantly higher than those in cirrhotic ascites (p<0.05). VEGF levels in ascites of chemonaive patients were significantly higher than those in chemotreated patients (p<0.05). A cutoff value of 10.4 pg/mL was calculated using receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) for VEGF in chemotreated and chemonaive patients, which gave sensitivities of 75.0% and 53.8% and specificities of 69.6% and 47.1%, respectively. Positive correlations were observed between VEGF and CEA (r=0.353, p<0.05) as well as between VEGF and CA19-9 (r=0.367, p<0.05) in ascites.


CONCLUSIONS
VEGF levels could be a useful tumor marker for malignant ascites, but its value should carefully be interpreted because of lesser reliability in chemotreated ones.
Lee
Hae Kyung
HK
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Catholic University College of Medicine, 65-1 Kumoh-dong, Uijeongbu, Kyunggi-do 480-130, Korea.
Chae
Hiun Suk
HS
Kim
Jin Soo
JS
Kim
Hyung Keun
HK
Cho
Young Seok
YS
Rho
Sang Young
SY
Kang
Jin-Hyoung
JH
Cho
Seok Goo
SG
Jang
Hong Seok
HS
Han
Kyungja
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001201:Ascites / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A