Vascular endothelial growth factor in the serum of lung cancer patients and its clinical significance

Objective To investigate the expression of serum vascular endothelial growth factor(S-VEGF) in lung cancer patients and its clinical significance.Methods Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA),the levels of S-VEGF were determined in serum from 87 healthy subjects and 114 lung cancer patients who were diagnosed by pathology and/or cytology.Results The mean serum VEGF levels in lung cancer cases were 203.70 ng/L,which was significantly higher than that of healthy subjects(75.21 ng/L).While the normal upper value of S-VEGF was 200.6 ng/L according to statistical analysis,the sensitivity and specificity of S-VEGF in lung cancer patients were 59.6% and 95.4% respectively.The sensitivity of S-VEGF in patients with tumor burden was significantly higher than that without tumor burden(74.68% vs 25.71%,P0.001).Conclusions SVEGF has a high expression in lung cancer,which may play a very important role in the growth and metastasis of lung cancer.It is a useful tumor marker of lung cancer.