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VEGF and malignant pleural effusion in lung cancer

Malignant pleural effusion

VEGF expression in patients with malignant (lung adenocarcinoma) and non-malignant (CHF-related) pleural effusion, as detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The difference between the mean values for the lung adenocarcinoma group and the CHF group was statistically significant (p<0.0001, Mann–Whitney test).14

Adapted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Oncogene 2006;25:4300–9. © 2006.

The role of VEGF in malignant pleural effusion

Patients with lung cancer who develop malignant pleural effusion have shorter survival compared with patients without effusion.

  • In an effort to determine the pathogenesis of malignant pleural effusion in NSCLC, Yeh and colleagues performed both preclinical and clinical studies.
  • Their preclinical work, which included both tumour cell line and animal model experiments, examined the pathogenesis of malignant pleural effusion.
  • One protein they showed to be involved in this pathogenic process is Stat3.
  • In a tumour cell line study, the investigators also found that VEGF overexpression was correlated with expression of Stat3.14
 

The investigators' clinical studies included a comparison between patients with malignant pleural effusion caused by NSCLC (n=23) and patients with non-malignant pleural effusion, that is, pleural effusion caused by CHF (n=12).

  • In this comparison, VEGF levels were significantly higher in patients with lung cancer-related pleural effusion than in patients with non-malignant pleural effusion (p<0.0001).14