Serum level of vascular endothelial-cadherin in patients with gastric cancer and its clinical significance

Objective To detect serum level of vascular endothelial-cadherin(VE-cadherin) in patients with gastric cancer and to explore its clinical significance.Methods Serum levels of VE-cadherin were measured using ELISA in 60 presurgical patients with gastric cancer confirmed by pathology,40 with chronic gastritis,and 40 healthy individuals.Results The serum VE-cadherin levels in gastric cancer were significantly higher than those in chronic gastritis or in the healthy individuals(P 0.01 for both comparisons).Serum VE-cadherin level was correlated with tumor size(P 0.05) but unrelated to sex,age,depth of infiltration,lymph node metastases,distant metastases,and degree of the cell differentiation(P 0.05 for all comparisons).Conclusion Serum VE-cadherin level may be involved in the genesis of gastric cancer and is positively correlated with tumor size.