Correlation between Tumor Markers and Clinicopathologic Factors in Peripheral Blood of Papillary Thyroid Cancer Patients / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) are involved in the pathogenesis and development of thyroid cancer. The purpose of this study was to find the correlation between serum VEGF, VEGF-C, MMP-9, EGF, HGF and clinicopathologic factors. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit, 64 patients with thyroid papillary cancer, 15 benign thyroid mass patients and 14 healthy normal control were analyzed to investigate the expression of human VEGF, VEGF-C, MMP-9, EGF and HGF. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the serum levels of VEGF, VEGFC, MMP-9, TGF, EGF between papillary thyroid cancer group and the benign thyroid tumor group. Levels of VEGF and MMP-9 appeared higher in lateral cervical lymph node metastasis than N0 lymph node metastasis or only cervical component lymph node metastasis. But, the serum VEGF-C level was significantly related with tumor size, T stage, extrathyroidal extension and lateral cervical lymph node metastasis (p=0.043). CONCLUSION: VEGF, VEGF-C, MMP-9, HGF and EGF could not be used as a diagnostic tool for differentiating malignancy from benign thyroid disease. Serum VEGF, VEGF-C and MMP-9 levels were correlated with lateral cervical lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid cancer. Consequently, this results suggests that they may serve as preoperative supplementary marker for determining the extent of papillary thyroid cancer surgery. Also, serum VEGF-C levels were correlated with some prognostic factors of papillary thyroid cancer.