Background/aims: To study the relationship between serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), endostatin and pathological characteristics of patients with gastrointestinal cancers.
Methodology: Serum VEGF and endostatin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunoassay in 60 patients with gastric carcinoma, 55 with hepatocellular carcinoma and 58 with colorectal carcinoma before and after surgical resection.
Results: The preoperative levels of VEGF and endostatin in patients with gastrointestinal cancers were significantly higher than those in control groups respectively. They were closely related to the grades of cell differentiation, size of primary tumors, depth of invasion, metastasis and pathological stage, but not to tumor site and gender. The postoperative VEGF levels were significantly lower than those of preoperation, while postoperative endostatin levels were significantly higher than those of preoperation.
Conclusions: Preoperative serum VEGF and endostatin levels may be used for evaluating the biological behavior, invasion and metastasis of gastric, hepatocellular and colorectal carcinoma. Elevated serum endostatin levels were found in the patients with gastric cancer, HCC and colorectal cancer after surgery. Gastrointestinal tumor itself may be not the main source of endostatin.