Clinical significance of changes of serum vascular endothelial growth factor level before and after radiotherapy in patients with esophageal carcinoma

Objective To investigate the changes and clinical value of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) level before,during and after radiotherapy in patients with esophageal carcinoma.Methods The sera of 67 esophageal carcinoma patients and 30 healthy control cases were collected.The VEGF level in serum samples were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.The relations among VEGF level changes,clinical stages and radiotherapy effect were analyzed.Results The VEGF levels of patients with esophagus cancer before,during and after radiotherapy were significantly higher than those in control group ( F =11.65,P ＜ 0.01 ).The VEGF level after radiotherapy was significant lower than that before radiotherapy ( F =10.72,P ＜ 0.01 ).The average VEGF level of patients with T3 and T4 was significantly higher than that of control group ( F =14.10,P ＜ 0.01 ).The average VEGF level of patients with N1 and N2 was significantly higher than that of control group( F =8.64,P ＜0.01).In 62 patients,the serum VEGF level increased in 21 cases but decreased in 41 cases after radiotherapy.With difference in radiotherapy efficiency of 61.90％ and 90.24％,respectively(x2 =6.08,P＜ 0.05).The average VEGF level during and after radiotherapy for 50 cases of CR + PR were significantly lower than that before radiotherapy( F =7.98,P ＜ 0.01 ).Conclusions Monitoring the serum VEGF level of patients with esophagus cancer can help evaluate the radiosensitivity,which has a significance in predicting the prognosis of radiotherapy. Key words: Esophageal carcinoma;  Radiotherapy ;  Vascular endothelial growth factor