[Clinical significance and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in serum of patients with acute leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level in patients with acute leukemia and to elucidate the relation of its level with the carcinogenesis or relapse of acute leukemia and its clinical significance. METHODS: The VEGF levels in the serum and leukemic cell cultured supernatants were measured by sandwich ELISA in 88 acute leukemia patients and 30 healthy individuals. RESULTS: The pre-chemotherapeutic serum and supernatant VEGF level in newly diagnosed or relapsed patients with acute leukemia were significantly higher than those in healthy subjects (P < 0.01). The serum VEGF level was correlated with the count of blast cells in bone marrow or peripheral blood of patients with acute leukemia (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The pretherapeutic serum VEGF level of patients with acute leukemia appears to be a predictor of the carcinogenesis or relapse of acute leukemia and reflects the tumor burden of acute leukemia.