Clinical significance of vascular endothelial growth factor in patients with primary lung cancer

Objective: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenesis factor closely associated with the growth and metastasis of malignant tumours. Methodology: In the present study, we measured plasma VEGF levels in 20 normal subjects (N), 35 patients with benign lung diseases (B), 28 patients with untreated advanced lung cancer (NT) and 10 patients with treated lung cancer (T). In addition, we measured the VEGF levels in pleural effusions from five patients with primary lung cancer and two patients with active infectious diseases. Vascular endothelial growth factor was measured by ELISA. Results: The mean (+/-SD) plasma VEGF level in NT patients (160.8+/-177.4 pg/mL) was fivefold higher than that in other patient groups (T, 17.7+/-4.9 pg/mL; B, 28.3+/-17.6 pg/mL) and the N group (14.9+/-7.0 pg/mL; P< 0.01). Vascular endothelial growth factor from lung cancer pleural effusions (17 526.0+/-22 498.2 pg/mL) was 25-fold higher than that from patients with active infectious diseases (665.5+/-259.0 pg/mL). Conclusions: Plasma VEGF may be a good clinical indicator for the assessment of primary lung cancer and pleural effusion VEGF in primary lung cancer is higher than pleural effusion VEGF in patients with inflammatory diseases.