The effect of doxorubicin on the changes of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE)

Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is known to induce vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. A recent study has shown that doxorubicin can repress hypoxic induction of VEGF expression in human cancer cells. To evaluate the combination effects of doxorubicin and TACE on the change of serum VEGF after TACE. Thirty patients with unresectable HCC were assigned into two groups, the experiment group (n = 15) received TACE with doxorubicin (25-50 mg) plus mitomycin C (5-10 mg), and the control group (n = 15) received TACE with mitomycin C (5-10 mg). Serum VEGF before and after TACE (24 hour) was measured by quantitative sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Baseline serum VEGF was correlated with the size of tumor (r2 = 0.85; p = 0.03). In addition, serum VEGF was significantly elevated after TACE (p = 0.014). However; the change of serum VEGF after TACE is not statistically different in both groups (p = 0.72). At 2-years, the overall survival was 38% and 40% in the experiment and control group, respectively (p = 0.48). The present study suggests that doxorubicin improves neither the level of serum VEGF nor the survival in HCC patients treated with TACE.