Increased Serum Levels of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Neovascularization, an essential event for the growth of solid tumors, is regulated by a number of angiogenic factors. One such factor, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), is considered to exert a potent angiogenic activity, as indicated by immunohistochemical and molecular evidence. In this study we investigated the serum VEGF level (s-VEGF) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). s-VEGF in peripheral blood samples was analyzed in 40 RCC patients and 40 patients without cancer (controls) using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunoassay. In 20 RCC patients, serum samples were obtained separately from the bilateral renal veins. s-VEGF was also measured before, 4 and 8 weeks after nephrectomy in 11 patients. There were significant differences in s-VEGF between the RCC patients and the controls (207.3 ± ± ± ±32.9 vs. 71.5 ± ± ± ±9.1 pg/ml, mean± ± ± ±SE) (P < < < <0.005), between the tumor-bearing renal veins and the contralateral ones (P < < < <0.01), between the pre-and post-nephrectomy situations (P < < < <0.01) and among the various parameters of tumor status such as tumor extent (P < < < <0.001) and existence of metastasis (P < < < <0.001). s-VEGF significantly correlated with the tumor volume obtained by a three-dimensional measurement (r = = = =0.802, P < < < <0.0001).The sensitivity and specificity of s-VEGF at the cut-off level of 100 pg/ml, as determined by the receiver-operating-characteristics curve, were 80.0% and 72.5%, respectively. The results indicate that tumor tissue of RCC liberates VEGF into the systemic blood flow and that s-VEGF is a possible marker for RCC.

Clinical implication of vascular endothelial growth factor T-460C polymorphism in the risk and progression of prostate cancer

“…Many studies have observed that an over-expression of the VEGF in cancer cells is associated with tumor progression and metastasis in various types of cancers (3)(4)(5). An increased level of plasma and urinary VEGF in cancer patients is suggested to be a possible diagnostic and prognostic predictor (6,7). In prostate cancer, a higher expression level of VEGF protein in human prostate cancer cells than benign prostate hyperplasia or normal prostate cells was confirmed immunohistochemically (8,9).…”

Stathmin expression in glioma-derived microvascular endothelial cells: A novel therapeutic target

“…Since microvasular endothelial cell is the key player in the process of neoangiogenesis, molecular genetic investigations of microvasular endothelial cells have been extensively carried out. Most of the researches have been concentrated on VEGF and its analogs within the VEGF receptor-mediated signaling cascades (2,3).…”

Where is VEGF in the body? A meta-analysis of VEGF distribution in cancer

“…A marked increase in VEGF levels has been observed in various types of cancer including anal carcinoma (Kusumanto et al, 2003), lymphoma (Salven et al, 1999a), lung cancer (Salgado et al, 1999;Yanagawa et al, 1999;Matsuyama et al, 2000;Kishiro et al, 2002), gastric carcinoma (Hyodo et al, 1998;Kraft et al, 1999;Yoshikawa et al, 2000), ovarian cancer (Hyodo et al, 1998;Tempfer et al, 1998;Kraft et al, 1999;Yoshikawa et al, 2000), renal cell carcinoma (Dosquet et al, 1997;Sato et al, 1999;Jacobsen et al, 2002;Ljungberg et al, 2003), brain tumour (Stockhammer et al, 2000), hepatocellular carcinoma (Poon et al, 2001), breast cancer (Bando et al, 2005;O'Riain et al, 2005), prostate cancer (Kaushal et al, 2005;Li et al, 2005) and colorectal cancer (Haraguchi et al, 2002;Karayiannakis et al, 2002;Werther et al, 2003). Of these, the last three are most extensively studied.…”