[Predicting postoperative recurrence of renal cell carcinoma using serum vascular endothelial growth factor].

Background: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known as one of the key molecules in molecular targeting therapy for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Several studies have shown that VEGF might be useful for predicting prognosis in RCC. We examined whether pretreatment serum VEGF can be used as a predictor of recurrence-free survival in non-metastatic RCC.

Materials And Methods: We studied 85 patients with non-metastatic clear cell RCC who underwent nephrectomy between 2001 and 2010. Serum samples were collected for VEGF before operation. We evaluated the recurrence-free survival by univariate and multivariate analysis.

Results: 9 patients (10.6%) showed recurrence. Serum level of VEGF in patients with recurrence showed significantly higher than those in patients without recurrence (p = 0.0310). A cutoff level of 416 pg/mL for the separation of low and high serum VEGF levels was established based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The recurrence-free survival rate was significantly lower in patients with a high serum VEGF level (p = 0.0039). Multivariate analysis showed that pretreatment serum VEGF value was a significant predictor of postoperative recurrence in non-metastatic clear cell RCC (p = 0.0062).

Conclusions: Pretreatment level of serum VEGF might be useful for prediction of postoperative recurrence in non-metastatic clear cell RCC.