Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine F. Magrassi and A. Lanzara, Second University of Naples, Italy.
Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2012 Jan;76(1):142-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2011.04183.x.
Vascular endothelial growth factor-D (VEGF-D) has been identified as one of the lymphangiogenic growth factors involved in metastatic diffusion. The aim of this study is to evaluate the serum VEGF-D levels in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer at different conditions of disease.
We studied prospectively the VEGF-D plasma levels in 96 subjects affected by differentiated thyroid cancer. The patients were divided into three groups according to the clinical and biochemical findings: patients with no evidence of disease (Cured), patients with pathological (>1 ng/ml) stimulated thyroglobulin (Tg) (Path-Tg/rhTSH) levels only after rhTSH and patients with elevated basal Tg levels (Path-Tg/LT4).
The serum VEGF-D concentrations in patients of group Cured were not different from the controls, while group Path-Tg/rhTSH showed baseline serum VEGF-D levels significantly lower than group Cured and controls (P < 0·001 and P < 0·01, respectively). Moreover, the patients of group Path-Tg/LT4 showed median serum cytokine concentrations at baseline not significantly different from the patients of group Path-Tg/rhTSH. The rhTSH stimulation did not modify the difference in serum VEGF-D levels in patients of group Cured and group Path-Tg/rhTSH.
Our data demonstrate that the VEGF-D serum levels are reduced in patients with metastases of differentiated thyroid cancer, regardless of the degree of metastatic spread. It is possible that some other molecule produced by the tumoral tissue could affect the VEGF-D physiologically produced of from different tissues, thus conducting to a decrease in the VEGF-D found in blood of patients with evidence of metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer.
血管内皮生长因子-D（VEGF-D）已被确定为参与转移性扩散的淋巴血管生成生长因子之一。本研究旨在评估不同疾病状态下分化型甲状腺癌患者的血清 VEGF-D 水平。
我们前瞻性研究了 96 例分化型甲状腺癌患者的 VEGF-D 血浆水平。根据临床和生化发现，将患者分为三组：无疾病证据的患者（治愈）、仅在 rhTSH 后出现病理性（>1ng/ml）刺激甲状腺球蛋白（Tg）（Path-Tg/rhTSH）水平的患者和基础 Tg 水平升高的患者（Path-Tg/LT4）。
治愈组患者的血清 VEGF-D 浓度与对照组无差异，而 Path-Tg/rhTSH 组患者的基础血清 VEGF-D 水平明显低于治愈组和对照组（分别为 P<0.001 和 P<0.01）。此外，Path-Tg/LT4 组患者的基线血清细胞因子浓度中位数与 Path-Tg/rhTSH 组患者无显著差异。rhTSH 刺激并未改变治愈组和 Path-Tg/rhTSH 组患者血清 VEGF-D 水平的差异。
我们的数据表明，无论转移扩散程度如何，分化型甲状腺癌转移患者的血清 VEGF-D 水平均降低。可能是肿瘤组织产生的某些其他分子会影响来自不同组织的生理性 VEGF-D 产生，从而导致转移性分化型甲状腺癌患者血液中 VEGF-D 的减少。
