Serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor in patients with gastric carcinoma and its clinical significance

Objective To explore the serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with gastric cancer and its relationship with clinicopathologic characteristics and disease prognosis.Methods The level of serum VEGF was measured with sandwish enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 56 patients with gastric carcinomas and 31 follow-up patients after operation,16 cases of gastric ulcer and 45 normal subjects as controls.Results The serum VEGF level in gastric carcinoma [(257.5±107.3) pg/ml] significantly elevated as compared to that in patients with gastric ulcer[(132.0±56.3 )pg/ml] and that of the normal controls[( 121.4±42.5)pg/ml],but there was no significant difference between the ulcer and healthy controls.That positive rate of serum VEGF was 69.8%, 25.0% and 11.1% in carcinoma, ulcer and normal controls,respectively. The serum VEGF level was positively correlated with tumor vessel invasion, lymph node and hepatic metastasis.The VEGF level was increased significantly with TNM stages, but not correlated with tumor size, histological type, sex and age. There was significant difference between VEGF levels in patients with recurrence and those without recurrence after surgical resection.Conclusion The serum VEGF level of gastric carcinoma appears to reflect its potential activity of vascular invasion and metastasis, and posttherapeutic VEGF may be used an indicator of recurrence and disease prognosis in gastric carcinoma.