TURKISH JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 2012 , Vol 27 , Num 2
Angiogenic factors in small vell lung cancer (VEGF, VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2)
Hilal OĞUZ SOYDİNÇ,1 Derya DURANYILDIZ,1 Elif BİLGİN,1 Faruk TAŞ,2 Vildan YASASEVER1
1İstanbul Üniversitesi Onkoloji Enstitüsü, Temel Onkoloji Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul
2İstanbul Üniversitesi Onkoloji Enstitüsü, Klinik Onkoloji Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul OBJECTIVES
Angiogenesis has an important role in metastasis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the angiogenic factors that has the ability to increase the permeability of capillary blood vessels. Its mitogenic and angiogenic activities are specific for endothelial cells. VEGF was secreted both from normal and tumor cells. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the main types of lung cancer that grows and spreads quickly. In this study, we investigated VEGF and its receptors VEGFR-1 (fms-related tyrosine kinase/FLT- 1) and VEGFR-2 (kinase insert domain receptor/KDR) in SCLC.

METHODS
Our study group consisted of 60 SCLC patients and 20 healthy subjects. The serum levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

RESULTS
Serum levels of VEGF (p<0.001) and its receptors (p<0.001) were significantly higher in patients than controls before chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION
Our data indicate that coexpression of serum levels of VEGF and its receptors can be used for deciding the antiangiogenic therapy. Keywords : Small cell lung cancer; vascular endothelial growth factor; VEGF receptors