Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Levels in Ascites Between Chemonaive and Chemotreated Patients.
10.3349/ymj.2008.49.3.429
- Author:
Hae Kyung LEE
1
;
Hiun Suk CHAE
;
Jin Soo KIM
;
Hyung Keun KIM
;
Young Seok CHO
;
Sang Young RHO
;
Jin Hyoung KANG
;
Seok Goo CHO
;
Hong Seok JANG
;
Kyungja HAN
Author Information
1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. chs@catholic.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords:
Vascular endothelial growth factor;
chemotherapy;
malignant ascites;
carbohydrate antigen 19-9;
carcinoembryonic antigen
- MeSH:
Adolescent;
Adult;
Aged;
Aged, 80 and over;
Ascites/*drug therapy/*metabolism/pathology;
CA-19-9 Antigen/metabolism;
Carcinoembryonic Antigen/metabolism;
Child;
Female;
Humans;
Male;
Middle Aged;
Treatment Outcome;
Tumor Markers, Biological/metabolism;
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/*metabolism
- From:Yonsei Medical Journal
2008;49(3):429-435
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in malignant ascites have high diagnostic value for their discrimination from asictes of non-malignant origin. However, there have been no reports on the comparison of VEGF levels between malignant ascites of chemonaive and chemotreated patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: VEGF levels were measured in 44 ascites patients (cirrhosis ascites, 10; chemonaive patients, 21; chemotreated patients, 13) and compared to the level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9). The diagnostic parameters of sensitivity, specificity, and correlation among 3 markers were evaluated. RESULTS: VEGF levels in malignant ascites of chemonaive and chemotreated patients were significantly higher than those in cirrhotic ascites (p<0.05). VEGF levels in ascites of chemonaive patients were significantly higher than those in chemotreated patients (p<0.05). A cutoff value of 10.4pg/mL was calculated using receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) for VEGF in chemotreated and chemonaive patients, which gave sensitivities of 75.0% and 53.8% and specificities of 69.6% and 47.1%, respectively. Positive correlations were observed between VEGF and CEA (r=0.353, p<0.05) as well as between VEGF and CA19-9 (r=0.367, p<0.05) in ascites. CONCLUSION: VEGF levels could be a useful tumor marker for malignant ascites, but its value should carefully be interpreted because of lesser reliability in chemotreated ones.
