Clinical value of abnormal expression of vascular endothelial growth factor on diagnosis and prognosis of patients with lung cancer.

Objective:To explore changes and clinical values of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in diagnosis and prognosis of patients with lung cancers. Methods:The VEGF cellular distributions and expression in 38 specimens of patients with lung cancer were investigated with immunohistochemistry assay. The levels of VEGF in sera of patients with lung cancer, benign lung diseases and healthy controls were detected through ELISA method. Results:The VEGF positive stain was 76% in 38 cases of lung cancer specimens. The 89% rate of VEGF stain was found for clinical stage III cases and 92% for stage IV lung cancers. The significantly higher expression of VEGF was evidenced in patients with lymph node metastasis (84%), distant metastasis (90%), and lung cancers with lower histological differentiation (89%), respectively. The level of serum VEGF in the patients with lung cancer was significantly higher than that in the healthy control group(P0 01) No significant difference of serum VEGF levels was detected between cases with lung cancer and patients with benign diseases(mainly inflammatory disease) . However, the VEGF level of cases with benign diseases was decreased significantly after patients with anti-inflammation medication. Conclusion:The present data suggest that the expression of VEGF has a significant correlation among growth, invasion and lymphonode metastasis. VEGF may be an independent predictor of prognosis .The level of serum VEGF in patients with lung cancer may be a useful indicator for tumor angiogenesis and metastasis.