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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

A Simple Bioassay for the Evaluation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors
Published on: March 15, 2016
Functional vascular endothelial growth factor -2578 C/A polymorphism in relation to nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk and
Hela Ben Nasr1, Karim Chahed, Noureddine Bouaouina
1Laboratoire d'Immuno-Oncologie Moléculaire, Faculté de Médecine de Monastir, 5019 Monastir, Tunisia. helabn@yahoo.fr
Background:
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a mitogen for endothelial cells and a potent regulator of angiogenesis and inflammatory processes in nasopharyngeal carcinomas. In the current report, we designed a case-controlled study to evaluate whether a genetically predetermined variation in the VEGF expression may affect susceptibility and prognosis.
Methods:
A PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used to determine the variation of the -2578 C/A promoter region in a Tunisian population of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) and in healthy control subjects.
Results:
A significantly risk of NPC was observed for carriers of VEGF -2578 C allele (OR=1.4; P=0.03). Regarding prognostic indicators, a significant association was found between -2578 C allele carriers and the aggressive forms of NPC as defined by large tumor size (OR=2.29; P=0.0002) and advanced tumor stages (OR=1.97; P=0.02). Moreover, an association was ascertained between the VEGF polymorphism and gender.
Conclusions:
This is the first report on the studies of functional VEGF polymorphisms in NPC and our preliminary data suggest that this genetic variant may play a role in mediating susceptibility to NPC, as well as, in neoplastic progression, supporting our hypothesis for VEGF involvement in NPC etiology.
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