Clinical Impact of Urinary Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in Patients with Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder

Choi, Jin Ho; Chang, Sung Goo

Abstract

PURPOSE
Vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) is an important protein implicated in tumors associated with microvascular hyperpermeability and angiogenesis. Recently, the importance of VEGF in urologic tumors including prostatic cancer has been demonstrated by the immunohistochemical analysis of cancer specimens. However, little is known about the significance of the urinary VEGF value in primary bladder cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this study, we have investigated the urinary VEGF concentration by ELISA and the urine creatinine concentration In 24h urine collection was used corset the value. A total of 37 transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder were assessed; 8 controls(group 1), 8 superficial bladder tumors(group 11), 11 invasive bladder tumors(group 111) and 8 superficial bladder tumors that had undergone complete transurethral resection(group IV).
RESULTS
1. No correlation was observed between urinary VEGF concentrations and aging, but excretion of urine creatinine decreased according to age(r=-0.4782, p=0.0028), particularly being prominent in females(r=-0.39, p=0.015). 2. Multiple comparison analysis(Duncan's multiple range test) of differences in urinary VEGF expression among 4 groups(1-lV) showed more higher in group 11 than any other of the three remaining groups(p<0.05) and statistical comparison 4 groups was significant(p=0.0035). We also obtained the same results as above when using age-adjusted ANCOVA test. 3. Correlations between urinary VEGF expressions and tumor size and grade were not significant in group 11(p> 0.05). 4. When dividing group 111 into visible and invisible subgroups, no significant differences were observed within the subgroups(p> 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
The evaluation of urinary VEGF concentrations is easy to perform and our results suggest that it may contribute to the predictive diagnostic study of the progression and prognosis of primary bladder cancer.