Impact of Surgery on the Hemangiogenic Profile, Especially VEGF Levels, in Lung Cancer Patients.

Lung cancer was considered to be rare at the beginning of the 20th century, but it has now reached almost epidemic proportions. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in developed countries and is also rising at alarming rates in developing countries. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging viral infection without any approved treatment. Investigational therapies for COVID-19 may cause clinically important drug-drug interactions (DDIs). We aimed to study drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and their risk factors in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. The aim of our study is to establish an effect on serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) after surgery in lung cancer patients. This was a prospective study. For the estimation of VEGF, 50 lung cancer patients were studied. Both preoperative and postoperative levels of VEGF were estimated for all subjects. Blood samples were obtained from all cases both preoperatively and postoperatively (four weeks after surgery). Blood samples of 100 age and sex matched healthy controls were collected from the Outpatient Departments of SKIMS to establish normal serum VEGF levels. Our findings show that serum VEGF levels are higher as the tumor stage progresses and tumor size increases, which explains the lower serum VEGF levels observed by us in the operable patient group.