Prospective validation of the prognostic value of elevated serum vascular endothelial growth factor in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: more distant metastases and shorter overall survival after treatment.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this prospective study was to investigate the prognostic value of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (sVEGF) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).


METHODS
sVEGF was prospectively detected in 306 patients with NPC with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay before treatment. The correlations between sVEGF and the survival of these patients were evaluated.


RESULTS
Patients were followed for at least 36 months. The mean sVEGF was 387.0 ng/L. sVEGF showed no difference in sex, age, and local recurrence. However, sVEGF was positively associated with histology, TNM classification, distant metastasis, and overall survival (OS; p < .05). The 4-year OS and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) of the high-sVEGF versus low-sVEGF groups were 68% versus 86% and 70% versus 89%, respectively (p < .05). Stratified analysis showed that patients with stage IV(a,b) , T(4) , N(1) , or N(positive) disease with high VEGF levels had worse 4-year OS and 4-year DMFS than those with low VEGF levels (p < .05). Multifactorial Cox regression confirmed sVEGF was among the independent prognostic factors.


CONCLUSIONS
Elevation of sVEGF in patients with NPC predicts more posttreatment distant metastases and shorter OS and can be used as an independent poor prognostic indicator.
Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China 510060.
Xing
X
Lv
Yan-Qun
YQ
Xiang
Su-Mei
SM
Cao
Chao-Nan
CN
Qian
Ning-Wei
NW
Li
Ling
L
Guo
Hai-Qiang
HQ
Mai
Qiu-Yan
QY
Chen
Pei-Yu
PY
Huang
DongHua
D
Luo
Ka-Jia
KJ
Cao
Ming-Huang
MH
Hong
Xiang
X
Guo
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000556:secondary*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016019:Survival Analysis; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000097:blood*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A