Expression of plasma vascular endothelial growth factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and effect of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization therapy on plasma vascular endothelial growth factor level

Table 1 Pre-TACE plasma VEGF levels in patients categorized by radiological parameters

	Group	No. of patients	Median plasma VEGF (ng/L)	Statistic value	P value
Cirrhotic liver	No	13	80.15	t = 1.380	0.175
	Yes	32	57.19
Tumor location	Left lobe	4	77.82	F = 0.275	0.843
	Right lobe	26	66.62
	Spiegel’s lobe	5	50.38
	Multiple lobe	10	57.68
Tumor capsule	No	32	68.15	t = 0.888	0.379
	Yes	13	53.18
Ascites	No	37	62.81	t = 1.151	0.280
	Yes	8	82.60
Lymph node involvement	No	39	61.68	t = 1.677	0.101
	Yes	6	101.31
Tumor vascularity	Hypervascularity	31	75.59	F = 0.922	0.406
	Median	9	55.31
	Hypovascularity	3	39.1
Tumor size	< 5 cm	7	27.57	F = 5.804	0.006
	5-10 cm	22	55.59
	> 10 cm	11	101.54
Portal vein thrombosis	No	37	57.97	t = 2.669	0.011
	Yes	8	104.79
Extra hepatic metastasis	No	39	59.39	t = 2.483	0.017
	Yes	6	116.18
TNM classification	Stage II	16	36.55	F = 2.937	0.044
	Stage III	12	71.23
	Stage IVa	11	79.72
	Stage IVb	6	92.63
Arterio-portal vein shunting	No	37	56.03	t = 2.283	0.026
	Yes	8	99.9

TNM: tumor-node-metastasis. Tumor vascularity and arterial-portal vein shunting were studied by superselective digital sub-traction angiographic (DSA).

Table 2 Effect of different VEGF levels on specificity and sensitivity in predicting tumor load in patients with HCC

	Cut-off VEGF	Sensitivity	Specificity	Positive	Negative predictive
	value (ng/L)	(%)	(%)	predictive value (%)	value (%)
T II and T III/IV	36.55	75.9	62.5	78.6	58.8
Portal vein thrombosis	57.97	62.5	64.9	27.8	88.8
Extra hepatic metastasis	59.39	50	64.1	17.6	89.3
Arterio-portal vein shunting	56.03	75	67.6	33.3	92.6

Table 3 Correlation between plasma VEGF concentration and response to treatment

Clinical response	Plasma VEGF (ng/L)		No. of patients
			Low VEGF	High VEGF
Responder	49.52 ± 25.33	t = 2.285	16	2	χ2 = 5.599
Non-responder	73.33 ± 70.32	P = 0.025	15	12	P = 0.018