Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and prostate pathology

Abstract

Purpose: Previous studies suggest that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) circulating levels might improve identification of patients with prostate cancer but results are conflicting. Our aim was to compare serum VEGF levels across different prostate pathologies (including benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatitis, high grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia and prostate cancer) in patients at high risk of prostate cancer. Materials and Methods:We consecutively enrolled 186 subjects with abnormal digital rectal examination and/or total PSA (tPSA) ≥ 2.5 ng/mL. Blood was collected before diagnostic ultrasound guided trans-rectal prostate biopsy, or any prostate oncology treatment, to measure PSA isoforms and VEGF. Unconditional logistic regression was used to compute age-, tPSA-and free/total PSA-adjusted odds ratios (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for the association between serum VEGF and different prostatic pathologies. Results: Prostate biopsy main diagnoses were normal or benign prostatic hyperplasia (27.3%), prostatitis (16.6%), and prostatic cancer (55.0%). The median VEGF levels (ng/mL) in these groups were 178.2, 261.3 and 266.4 (p = 0.029), respectively, but no significant differences were observed for benign vs. malignant pathologies (215.2 vs. 266.4, p = 0.551). No independent association was observed between VEGF (3rd vs. 1st third) and prostate cancer, when compared to benign conditions (adjusted OR = 1.44; CI 95%: 0.64-3.26). Conclusions: In patients at high risk of prostate cancer, circulating VEGF levels have no clinical role in deciding which patients should be submitted to prostate biopsy. Prostatitis patients, often with higher PSA levels, also present high serum levels of VEGF, and their inclusion in control groups might explain the heterogeneous results in previous studies.

The Role of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Metastatic Prostate Cancer to the Skeleton

“…Increased VEGF plasma levels have been shown to correlate with skeletal metastasis and poor prognosis in prostate cancer patients and VEGF expression levels in many cancer types have been shown to correlate with poorer prognosis and metastatic potential [62]. However, other studies have shown that there is no correlation between VEGF serum levels and prognosis [63, 64]. The expression of VEGF is upregulated in prostate cancer and is associated with clinical stage, Gleason score, tumour stage, progression, metastasis and survival [65–67].…”

A microfluidic competitive immuno-aggregation assay for high sensitivity cell secretome detection

“…Among the cell secretome proteins, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the key regulators of angiogenesis and vascular permeabilization. 1,2 VEGF is often used as a biomarker to quantify clinical stages [3][4][5][6][7] and therapeutic efficacy. [8][9][10][11] In the clinic, elevated VEGF serum concentrations correlate with various cancers, [12][13][14][15][16][17] while abnormal VEGF concentrations have been found in patients with Alzheimer's disease.…”

Label-Free Biochips for Accurate Detection of Prostate Cancer in the Clinic: Dual Biomarkers and Circulating Tumor Cells

“…However, its low accuracy across different cut-offs depending on factors such as age or other symptoms (i.e., benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatitis, and cystitis) has warranted identification of other biomarkers that could further contribute in deciding whether the patient should be referred to prostatic biopsy for detailed examination. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a growth factor that can activate endothelial cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and induce blood vessel permeabilization, which are critical stages for tumor growth and development 4 . It has been shown to be expressed in many different types of tumors, including thyroid cancer, breast carcinoma, gliomas, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer 5 - 9 .…”