Clinical significance of measuring serum vasular endothelial growth factor and NO in patients with colorectal cancer

Objective To assess the clinical significance of the expression levels of serum vasular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and nitric oxide (NO) in patients with colorectal cancer.Methods Serum VEGF level was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and serum NO level detected by spectrophotometry in 59 colorectal cancer patients and 30 healthy individuals.Results The serum levels of VEGF and NO in colorectal cancer patients were significantly higher than those of in normal persons(P0.01).There was a positive correlation between serum VEGF,NO levels and tumor invasion depth,lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage(P0.01).There was also a positive correlation between serum VEGF level and serum NO level(P0.01).Conclusion VEGF and NO correlate with the invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer. Detection of serum VEGF and NO levels might be important index for evaluating maligment behavior of colorectal cancer. [