Vascular endothelial growth factor serum level as a diagnostic and prognostic marker for colorectal carcinoma

Colorectal cancer is a major cause of cancer death and the main line of treatment is still radical surgery but this necessitates a very early diagnosis. Serum markers currently used in clinical practice for colorectal cancer are carcinoemberyonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen (CA19-9). Both are used during surveillance and as prognostic measures for disease-free survival but not for diagnostic or screening purposes because of insufficient sensitivity and specificity. Therefore there is an urgent need for a serum marker that can help in early diagnosis. Angiogenesis plays a key role in tumor growth and progression and its targeting has been shown to be an effective anti-tumour measure. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the major factors that stimulate angiogenesis and its serum concentration could be a prognostic marker in solid tumors and has been described in a large variety of human malignancies. The aim of this work was to investigate the expression of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients; and correlate the findings with the patients' clinicopathologic features. Serum level of VEGF was determined in 68 patients and in 10 healthy controls and was compared to the levels of CEA and CA19-9. The results showed that serum level of VEGF were elevated in CRC patients and was significantly correlated with the levels of CEA and CA19-9. In conclusion VEGF serum level determination can be a good diagnostic marker for CRC and also open the way for VEGF inhibitors to be used as targeted therapy in CRC patients.