title: Correlation of serum vascular endothelial growth factor with clinicopathological parameters in cervical cancer.
abstract: Angiogenesis plays an important role in cervical cancer progression. Currently among several factors known to promote angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is most important. To evaluate the effect of treatment on VEGF levels and their correlation with other predictive factors, pre-and post treatment levels of VEGF were estimated in cervical cancer patients. 110 cases of frank cancer and 50 controls were enrolled for the present study: 18 in Stage I, 32 in Stage II, 48 in Stage III, and 12 in Stage IV. Serum VEGF levels were estimated by ELISA in patients on the day of recruitment and post treatment follow-up at a fixed time interval of 6-8 weeks. VEGF levels were highly significant among patients as compared to controls (p = 0.001). The pre-treatment VEGF levels among different stages of the disease were marginally insignificant (p = 0.07). However, they were significantly different for (i) various grades (p < 0.001), (ii) tumor size (p = 0.026), and (iii) smoking habits (p = 0.018). Post treatment levels were highly significant, as compared to pre-treatment values (p = 0.001). The pre-treatment and post-treatment VEGF levels were associated with (i) disease stage (p = 0.002), (ii) grade (p = 0.001), and (iii) tumor size (p = 0.001). In conclusion, VEGF is a potent angiogenic factor and can be considered as an effective prognostic marker in cervical cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Era's Lucknow Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: Shruti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: Abhilasha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Girdhar G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: Shankar M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Natu
authors.forename: Singh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uma
authors.forename: Madhumati M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Goel
authors.forename: Anand N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Srivastava
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001918:Brachytherapy; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D002945:Cisplatin