Serum and tissue vascular endothelial growth factor predicts prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients after partial liver resection.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To explore the effect of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression on prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after partial liver resection.

METHODOLOGY: The expression of VEGF in 64 preoperative serum and resection specimens of HCC, confirmed by pathology, was detected by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry. Correlations of VEGF level to clinicopathological features were analyzed. Cox regression model was used to analyze the recurrence risk factors after hepatectomy.

RESULTS: Serum level of VEGF in HCC patients was 334.50±247.62pg/mL, significantly higher than healthy control group (p<0.01); it was also significantly higher in recurrent group than in non-recurrent group (p<0.05). VEGF was expressed in cytoplasm of HCC specimens. The positive rates of VEGF was significantly higher in recurrent group than in non-recurrent group (85.0% vs. 54.5%, p<0.05). The 1-, 2- and 3-year disease-free survival rates were significantly higher in VEGF(-) group than in VEGF(+) group (81.3% vs. 52.2%, 68.8% vs. 33.3%, and 62.5% vs. 29.1%, p<0.01). The overall survival rates of VEGF(-) subgroup was borderline significant higher than that of VEGF(+) subgroup (p=0.068). Multivariate analysis revealed that preoperative macroscopically disseminated nodules, tumor micrometastasis, serum and tissue VEGF level were independent recurrence risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: Serum and tissue VEGF level of HCC patients ascends distinctly, correlates to the recurrence of HCC after partial liver resection which can be used to estimate the risk of postoperative recurrence of HCC.