Potential prognostic value of circulating levels of vascular endothelial growth factor-A in patients with gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential prognostic value of the circulating levels of vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) in patients with gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS An ELISA was used to quantify the serum and plasma levels of VEGF-A in 135 patients with gastric cancer and 48 controls with benign gastric diseases diagnosed by gastroendoscopy and histology of the biopsied specimens. Serum VEGF-A levels were assayed in controls (n = 10) and patients with gastric cancer (n = 10) prior to surgery. Further samples from 16 patients with gastric cancer, 3 weeks after tumour excision, were collected. RESULTS VEGF-A levels were significantly higher in both serum and plasma from patients with gastric cancer than those from the controls (serum: 342.1 pg/ml vs. 80.0 pg/ml, p < 0.01; plasma: 74.1 pg/ml vs. 23.7pg/ml, p < 0.01). In both cancer patients prior to surgery and controls, serum VEGF-A levels appeared to be unchanged over a 7-day period. However, examination of paired samples from 16 cancer patients collected prior to surgery and 3 weeks post-surgery showed that tumor excision resulted in a significant decrease in VEGF-A levels (Paired t-test, t = 5.4, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION Serum and plasma VEGF-A levels were significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer than in the controls. Serum VEGF-A levels correlated with tumour burden, as VEGF-A levels were significantly lowered following tumour excision in patients with gastric cancer.