Clinical significance of serum vascular endothelial growth factor in malignant pleural mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Clinical significance of serum vascular endothelial growth factor in malignant pleural mesothelioma, by N. Fujimoto, K. Gemba, T. Kishimoto (Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 2011).

The study

• Authors: N. Fujimoto, K. Gemba, T. Kishimoto
• Journal: Journal of Thoracic Oncology
• Published: 2011;6(5):971-2
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item is a short letter to the editor, not a research study. The authors, from the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Okayama Rosai Hospital in Japan, commented on an earlier article by Yasumitsu et al. about serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a blood protein, in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). The letter reported no new patients or data and did not discuss asbestos or any fiber exposure. The authors noted that the earlier report had linked higher serum VEGF with shorter overall survival. That same report also showed serum VEGF tending to rise as clinical stage went up. From this, the authors reasoned that the higher-VEGF group probably contained more patients with advanced MPM, and that serum VEGF may reflect tumor burden or disease progression. They argued that VEGF's value for predicting survival should be tested with multivariate analysis such as a Cox regression model, as in a report by Demirag et al. The authors concluded that more caution is needed about the prognostic significance of serum VEGF in MPM.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Letter to the editor commenting on a previously published study (no original data)
• Who was studied: None studied directly; the letter discusses the patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and normal subjects in the earlier study by Yasumitsu et al.
• Exposure: No asbestos or fiber exposure is discussed; the letter concerns serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels as a possible predictor of survival in MPM
• Main results:
  • No new data. The authors pointed out that in the earlier Yasumitsu et al. report, not in this letter, serum VEGF levels tended to rise with clinical stage
  • The authors reasoned that the higher-VEGF patient group in that report likely contained more patients with advanced-stage MPM
  • The authors' interpretation was that serum VEGF reflects tumor burden or disease progression in MPM
  • The authors argued that prognostic significance should be tested with multivariate analysis (Cox regression), as in a separate report by Demirag et al.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that more caution is needed about the prognostic significance of serum VEGF in MPM

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pleural Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Clinical significance of serum vascular endothelial growth factor in malignant pleural mesothelioma — A. Yasumitsu, C. Tabata, et al. (2010)
• Vascular endothelial growth factor in pleural fluid for differential diagnosis of benign and malignant origin and its clinical applications — A. Fiorelli, G. Vicidomini, et al. (2011)
• Novel orthotopic implantation model of human malignant pleural mesothelioma (EHMES-10 cells) highly expressing vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptor — E. Nakataki, S. Yano, et al. (2006)
• Vascular endothelial growth factor is an autocrine growth factor in human malignant mesothelioma — L. Strizzi, A. Catalano, et al. (2001)
• The presence of simian-virus 40 sequences in mesothelioma and mesothelial cells is associated with high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor — P. Cacciotti, L. Strizzi, et al. (2002)
• Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 as a marker for malignant vascular tumors and mesothelioma: an immunohistochemical study of 262 vascular endothelial and 1640 nonvascular tumors — M. Miettinen, M.S. Rikala, et al. (2012)

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