title: Serum vascular endothelial growth factor-C levels: A possible diagnostic marker for lymph node metastasis in patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer.
abstract: Accurate tumor staging is essential for selecting the appropriate treatment strategy for lung cancer. Computed tomography (CT), or positron emission tomography (PET), is the most commonly used non-invasive staging method of lymph node (LN) metastases (LNM), but this method remains unsatisfactory. The present study measured vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C levels in serum, tumor tissue and LNs to determine the correlation between serum VEGF-C and LNM, and also assessed the usefulness of serum VEGF-C as an additional diagnostic marker for identifying LNM. A total of 66 patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) or benign tumors of the lung were included in this study, and circulating VEGF-C levels were assessed with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. RNA fractions extracted from the tumor tissues and LNs were subjected to quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to assess the mRNA levels of VEGF-C. The VEGF-C levels in serum, tumor tissue and LNM were significantly higher compared with the control group (P<0.05). The VEGF-C levels of patients with LNM were significantly higher compared with those without LNM (P<0.05). The VEGF-C levels in the serum, tumor tissue and LNM were significantly correlated (P<0.05). With regard to the diagnosis of LNM using VEGF-C levels, the serum levels of VEGF-C reached a sensitivity of 65.0% and a specificity of 72.2% when a cutoff value of 655.65 pg/ml was applied. Serum VEGF-C levels may provide additional information for distinguishing between the absence and presence of LNM in patients with lung carcinoma. The evaluation of serum VEGF-C is complementary to accurate LN staging in NSCLC.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Oncology, Jinan, Shandong 250117, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yakun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Hongsheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Xiujiu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qisen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
keywords: diagnosis; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; lymph node metastasis; non-small cell lung cancer; polymerase chain reaction; vascular endothelial growth factor-C