El Tarhouny Shereen, Seefeld Martin, Fan Alex Xiu-Cheng, Hahn Sinuhe, Holzgreve Wolfgang, Zhong Xiao Yan
Laboratory for Prenatal Medicine and Gynaecologic Oncology, Women's Hospital/Department Research, University of Basel, Room 416, Hebelstrasse 20, CH4031 Basel, Switzerland.
Cytokine. 2008 Oct;44(1):65-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cyto.2008.06.008. Epub 2008 Aug 8.
The observed elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its soluble receptor (sVEGFR1) and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in the serum of patients with various cancers have attracted much attention to the possibility of using these agents as biomarkers for cancers. We wanted to find out whether VEGF, VEGFR1 or cfDNA is a biomarker for breast cancer.
In this study, we used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to examine the levels of serum VEGF and VEGFR1 in 23 patients with benign tumors, 19 patients with breast cancer and 32 age-matched healthy females. The levels of circulating cell-free DNA were measured using TaqMan real-time PCR analysis for the glyceraldehydes 3 phosphate dehydrogenase gene (GAPDH), We compared the serum levels of VEGF and its soluble receptors with those of the cell-free serum DNA.
In terms of serum levels of either VEGF or its soluble receptors VEGFR1, we found no significant difference between healthy individuals and women with benign breast tumors and breast cancer. However, there was a significant increase in circulating cell-free DNA in women with both benign and malignant breast tumors when compared with the corresponding healthy control group. We also found a significant negative correlation between VEGF and its soluble receptor VEGFR1 (r=-0.328 and p=0.004), and a significant positive correlation between VEGF and cell-free serum DNA (r=0.241 and p=0.033).
We can conclude that quantitative analysis of circulating cell-free DNA in serum may provide molecular biological understanding of breast tumors in women. It would also suggest that serum levels of VEGF and VEGFR1 have less significance.
在各类癌症患者血清中观察到血管内皮生长因子（VEGF）、其可溶性受体（sVEGFR1）和游离DNA（cfDNA）水平升高，这使得人们高度关注将这些物质用作癌症生物标志物的可能性。我们想弄清楚VEGF、VEGFR1或cfDNA是否为乳腺癌的生物标志物。
在本研究中，我们使用酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）检测了23例良性肿瘤患者、19例乳腺癌患者和32例年龄匹配的健康女性血清中VEGF和VEGFR1的水平。使用针对甘油醛-3-磷酸脱氢酶基因（GAPDH）的TaqMan实时PCR分析来测量循环游离DNA的水平。我们将VEGF及其可溶性受体的血清水平与游离血清DNA的水平进行了比较。
就VEGF或其可溶性受体VEGFR1的血清水平而言，我们发现健康个体与患有良性乳腺肿瘤和乳腺癌的女性之间没有显著差异。然而，与相应的健康对照组相比，患有良性和恶性乳腺肿瘤的女性循环游离DNA有显著增加。我们还发现VEGF与其可溶性受体VEGFR1之间存在显著负相关（r = -0.328，p = 0.004），VEGF与游离血清DNA之间存在显著正相关（r = 0.241，p = 0.033）。
我们可以得出结论，血清中循环游离DNA的定量分析可能为女性乳腺肿瘤提供分子生物学方面的认识。这也表明VEGF和VEGFR1的血清水平意义较小。
