[Detection of serum levels of MMP-9 and VEGF in patients with bladder cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To detect serum levels of MMP-9 and VEGF in patients with bladder cancer. METHODS: Serum levels of MMP-9 and VEGF in 58 patients with bladder cancer and 45 healthy controls were measured by sandwich-ELISA. RESULTS: Serum levels of MMP-9 and VEGF (737.12 micro g/L and 1148.88 ng/L) were significantly higher in the cancer patients than those of controls (423.51 micro g/L and 846.96 ng/L, P < 0.01). The serum levels were associated with tumor stage and grade. In patients with invasive cancer, the levels were significantly higher than those of superficial cancer (P < 0.01). Patients with distant metastasis had significantly higher levels of MMP-9 and VEGF than those with localized invasion (P < 0.01). But there was no significant difference between patients with superficial cancer and controls. Patients with G(3) tumors had significantly higher levels of MMP-9 and VEGF than those of patients with G(1) and G(2) tumors (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated MMP-9 and VEGF levels are associated with a high stage and grade of bladder cancer and they may serve as markers of tumor progression in the future.