[Significance of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in serum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: This study was to determine the pretherapeutic serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to elucidate the relation of its level with clinical characteristics and metastasis of HCC.

METHODS: 115 HCC patients, 40 patients with benign liver lesions and 30 healthy control subjects were included in this study. Serum VEGF level was measured with the quantitative sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA, R&D systems).

RESULTS: Serum VEGF level in HCC [mean +/- s, (465.62 +/- 336.24) pg/ml] was significantly elevated as compared to those in patients with benign liver lesions[(159.54 +/- 120.58) pg/ml] and those of the normal controls [(123.53 +/- 51.84) pg/ml] though the mean VEGF level of benign liver lesions and normal controls were not significantly different. Serum VEGF concentration showed a positive rate of 77.4%, 25%, 3.3% respectively in HCC, benign liver lesions and normal controls. Of 115 HCC patients, serum VEGF level in patients with portal vein(PV) emboli [n = 26, mean, (582.76 +/- 441.89) pg/ml], with metastasis [n = 43, (548.29 +/- 438.57) pg/ml] or with large HCC lesions (> 5 cm in diameter) [n = 69, (554.43 +/- 369.99) pg/ml] were significantly higher than those without PV-emboli [n = 89, (431.39 +/- 292.84) pg/ml], without metastasis [n = 72, (416.24 +/- 247.27) pg/ml] or with small HCC lesions [n = 42, (328.67 +/- 227.47) pg/ml]. Serum VEGF levels in stage I, II, III, IV a and IV b HCC patients were 340.6 pg/ml, (451.55 +/- 307.84) pg/ml, (397.44 +/- 257.18) pg/ml, (486.10 +/- 397.73) pg/ml, (647.93 +/- 344.56) pg/ml, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The pretherapeutic serum VEGF level of HCC appears to reflect its potential activity of vascular invasion and metastasis.