Objective To determine whether the serum vasular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) level could be used as a predictor of recurrence and disease progression in patients with colorectal cancer.Methods Serum levels of VEGF in 30 healthy controls,85 patients with colorectal cancer and 21 patients between half and 4 years after colorectal cancer operation were measured with a sandwich enzyme immunoassay(ELISA),and the results were analyzed.Results Significant differences in the VEGF level were observed between controls and the patients with Duke′s A stage( P <0.01).Whereas there was no significant difference between healthy controls and high differentiation cancers( P >0.05).The VEGF level was significantly associated with Duke′s stage of the patients( P <0.05).Patients with lymph node metastasis(Duke′s C) had higher VEGF levels than those without it(Duke′s B, P < 0.01 ).There were significantly differences between patients with recurrence and no recurrence after surgical resection( P <0.01).Conclusion The results of this study suggest that the serum VEGF level is a useful marker for colorectal cancer and the elevation of serum VEGF level may be used as a new independent predictor of recurrence and disease progression.
