Yonsei Med J.  2008 Jun;49(3):429-435. 10.3349/ymj.2008.49.3.429.

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Levels in Ascites Between Chemonaive and Chemotreated Patients

• Lee HK
• Chae HS
• Kim JS
• Kim HK
• Cho YS
• Rho SY
• Kang JH
• Cho SG
• Jang HS
• Han K

• KMID: 724259
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2008.49.3.429

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.

Keyword

Vascular endothelial growth factor; chemotherapy; malignant ascites; carbohydrate antigen 19-9; carcinoembryonic antigen

MeSH Terms

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

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 (A) Malignant ascites of chemonaive patients. The areas under the ROC curve were 0.766 (p = 0.002). (B) Malignant ascites of chemotreated patients. The areas under the ROC curve were 0.462 (p = 0.686). ROC, receiver operating characteristic.

• 

  Fig. 2 (A) Correlation between ascitic VEGF concentrations and CA19 - 9 concentrations in malignant ascites. (B) Correlation between ascitic VEGF concentrations and CEA concentrations in malignant ascites. VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.

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