Plasma vascular endothelial growth factor 165 in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Currently, there is no serum marker that is routinely recommended for lung cancer. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to demonstrate that plasma vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (VEGF 165) may be a potential marker for advanced lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, therefore, it is important to develop novel diagnostic techniques. The present prospective case control study included two groups of patients; a control group of healthy volunteers and a second group of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The plasma VEGF 165 levels were measured at baseline by ELISA prior to the first-line gemcitabine-cisplatin regimen. The high VEGF 165 expression level cut-off was >703 pg/ml, and the primary endpoint was used to compare the plasma VEGF 165 levels between the NSCLC patients and the control group subjects. The secondary endpoint was used to identify the correlations between high VEGF 165 levels and; clinical response (CR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the advanced NSCLC patients. In total, patients with advanced NSCLC (n=35) were compared with a control group of age- and gender-matched healthy subjects (n=34). The follow-up period was between Oct 2009 and Oct 2012, with a median follow-up time of 10.5 months. The median plasma VEGF 165 level was 707 pg/ml in the NSCLC patients versus 48 pg/ml in the healthy control subjects (P<0.001). However, no significant correlation was found between the plasma VEGF 165 levels and CR (P<0.5), median PFS (P=1.00) or OS (P=0.70). Therefore, it was concluded that plasma VEGF 165 may serve as a potential diagnostic marker for advanced NSCLC.