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• VEGF as a prognostic indicator of disease progression

VEGF as a prognostic indicator of disease progression in prostate cancer

Monitoring the level of circulating VEGF may potentially provide information important in the assessment of prostate cancer. As a prognostic factor, VEGF expression has been shown to be associated with the risk of prostate cancer progression. A study by Peyromaure and colleagues investigated the prognostic value of VEGF in 40 patients with clinically localized prostate cancer using tissue microarrays. High VEGF-A expression was associated with cancer progression after radical prostectomy.⁷

Prognostic factors in prostate cancer progression: logistic regression analysis

The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor is associated with the risk of cancer progression after radical prostatectomy. Peyromaure, M. Copyright © 2007 BJU Int. Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. In a 2007 study, Peyromaure and colleagues performed a logistic regression analysis that included VEGF-A expression, PSA level prior to RP, Gleason score, and the pathologic stage of prostate cancer. VEGF-A expression was discovered to be the most significant prognostic factor for cancer progression after RP.⁷

Similarly, Miyake and colleagues demonstrated that overexpression of VEGF may be a prognostic marker of disease progression. Urinary VEGF levels were obtained from 97 patients with prostate cancer before and after RP or hormone therapy. The investigators demonstrated that the mean urinary level of VEGF in patients with prostate cancer was significantly higher than that of healthy controls: 37.2±10.6 pg/mL vs 22.5±6.7 pg/mL, respectively (P<0.001). Furthermore, the mean urinary level of VEGF in patients with metastasis was significantly elevated compared with that of patients without metastasis (38.7±14.1 pg/mL vs 30.4±12.9 pg/mL, P=0.032).⁸

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