Vascular endothelial growth factor (
VEGF) has been shown to play an important role in
tumor growth and progression. However, the clinical implications of
VEGF expression in ovarian
tumors are not fully understood. We therefore investigated the serum level of
VEGF in patients with ovarian
tumors and explored the potential use of
VEGF as a
tumor marker for diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of human
ovarian cancer. The serum
VEGF (sVEGF) levels in 120 patients with ovarian
carcinoma, 25 patients with benign ovarian
tumor and 90 healthy female blood donors were measured by an
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay in this study. We also determined the levels of sVEGF in patients with
epithelial ovarian cancer before and after surgery. Our results showed that: (i)
ovarian cancer patients had significantly higher levels of sVEGF compared to those of patients with benign ovarian
tumor or those of healthy individuals. As a cut-off at 100 pg/ml, the sensitivity and specificity of sVEGF levels for diagnosing ovarian
carcinoma were 77.1% and 87%, respectively. (ii) sVEGF levels were markedly elevated in patients with advanced stage or poorly-differentiated
ovarian cancer, as well as in those with more
ascites (>500 ml), as compared to patients with early stage and well-differentiated
ovarian cancer, or those with less
ascites (<500 ml). However, there was no significant difference in sVEGF levels among different pathological subtypes of ovarian
carcinoma. (iii) The post-operative sVEGF levels were significantly lower than the pre-operative sVEGF levels. (iv) We measured significantly higher levels of sVEGF in patients with
metastasis as compared to patients lacking
metastasis. Lastly (v) the average survival-time in patients with higher levels of sVEGF (>100 pg/ml) was 28 months, while the average survival-time in patients with lower levels of sVEGF (<100 pg/ml) was 35 months, indicating that the elevations in sVEGF level are correlated with patient survival and
tumor metastasis in ovarian
carcinoma. These data suggest that
VEGF may be a useful serological
biomarker for clinical diagnosis and prognosis of
ovarian cancer, for follow-up of ovarian
tumor metastasis and for monitoring the efficacy of
therapy in patients with ovarian
carcinomas.