Predictive Significance of VEGF and HIF-1α Expression in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy Combinations with Bevacizumab

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> There is no suggested molecular indicator for the determination of which patients will benefitfrom anti-angiogenetic treatment in metastatic colorectal cancers. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: In this study, VEGFand HIF-1α expression and their clinical significance were studied in tumor tissues of patients with colorectalcancer receiving bevacizumab-based treatment. VEGF and HIF-1α were assessed by immunohistochemistryin the primary tumors of 53 metastatic colorectal cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in combination withfirst line bevacizumab. <br/><b>Results</b>: The clinical benefit rate in the low-VEGF expression group was 38%, whileit was 62% in the high expression group. While the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 10 months inthe high-VEGF expression group, it was 8 months in the low-VEGF expression group (p = 0.009). The medianoverall survival (OS) was found to be 26 months vs 15 months. Thus, when VEGF was strongly expressed it wasin favor of that group and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.03). High VEGF expression rate wasan independent factor that correlated with OS or PFS (p=0.016 and 0.009, respectively). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: The datashowed that VEGF may have predictive value for determining the treatment of CRC.