Abstract:

Objective To investigate the application role of serum vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF） in monitoring treatment outcome and predicting the prognosis of patients with melanoma. Methods A total of 182 healthy subjects and 49 melanoma patients were enrolled. Serum samples were collected for analyzing the levels of serum VEGF. Clinical data,including sex,age,clinical stage,chemotherapy,treatment outcome,primary site,ulcer,mutations of driver genes,were collected. All the patients were followed up for 24 months,and the progression-free survival time（PFS） and overall survival time（OS） were recorded. The PFS and OS were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier survival curve. The factors for PFS and OS in melanoma patients were analyzed by Cox regression analysis. Results Melanoma patients（48.98%）have a higher VEGF positive rate than healthy subjects（3.85%）（P<0.001）. The melanoma patients were classified into 2 groups,VEGF normal group（25 cases） and VEGF increased group（24 cases）. Increased VEGF level was related to poor treatment outcome（P=0.001）,but it was not related to sex,age,tumor location,ulcer,clinical stage or driver gene mutation（P>0.05）. For patients with increased VEGF level（3 months）,PFS was shorter than that of patients with normal VEGF（9 months）（P=0.02）,and OS was shorter without statistical significance（P>0.05）. Patients with increased VEGF and advanced stage（Ⅳ）had increased risk of disease progression [hazard ratio（HR）=2.55 and 4.64,95% confidence intervals（CI） were 1.07-6.10 and 1.40-15.43]. Advanced stage（Ⅳ） was a risk factor for short OS in melanoma patients（HR=14.52,95%CI 2.67-79.08）. Conclusions VEGF in serum may be a circulating biomarker to predict treatment outcome in patients with advanced melanoma.

Key words: Vascular endothelial growth factor, Melanoma, Marker, Serum, Prognosis