Serum VEGF as a Tumor Marker in Patients with HCV-related Liver Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

摘要

Aim: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a primary driving force for both physiological and pathological angiogenesis, and its overexpression has been found in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to retrospectively clarify the usefulness of serum VEGF levels as a tumor marker in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver cirrhosis (CLC) and HCC. Materials and Methods: The patients with CLC were divided into three groups: 28 patients without HCC (CLC group), 11 patients with HCC (HCC group), and 48 patients with advanced HCC (aHCC group). The control group consisted of 37 patients with chronic HCV. Results: When the relation of serum VEGF to liver function was assessed, there was no significant difference of VEGF levels between the control group and the CLC group. When serum VEGF levels were assessed in relation to the presence of HCC, the VEGF levels of the HCC group and aHCC group were found to be significantly higher than that of the control group, while there was no significant difference between the control group and the CLC group. For the detection of cancer, serum VEGF had the largest area under the curve (AUC) and the highest accuracy when we employed the cut-off value obtained by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis using the Youden index.