Predictive Significance of Serum Level of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Gastric Cancer Patients

The study aims to evaluate serum VEGF expression in gastric cancer patients and investigate its relationship with clinicopathological parameters. We also examined the serum VEGF levels in GC patients having received surgery or chemotherapy treatment to assess its predictive and prognostic value as a biomarker. We enrolled 154 GC patients having not received neoadjuvant treatment and 100 healthy controls. In the treatment groups, 13 surgery patients and 15 chemotherapy patients were investigated. 42 chemotherapy patients with different chemotherapy efficacy were recruited as well. The serum VEGF was examined by ELISA. Serum VEGF level was remarkably upregulated in GC group compared with healthy group (p < 0.001). The serum VEGF level of GC group was significantly correlated with tumor cells differentiation degree, clinical stages, tumor infiltration depth, lymph node metastasis, and tumor size. The serum VEGF level of the 1 to 3 days after operation group was much lower than that of the preoperative group (p < 0.001) and the 7 days after operation group (p < 0.001). By contrast, serum VEGF level was decreased significantly after chemotherapy (p = 0.001). Importantly, serum VEGF level in PD+SD group was significantly higher compared to the PR+CR group (p = 0.011). Therefore, serum VEGF was a valuable biomarker in clinically monitoring the condition of GC patients.