Monitoring of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in POEMS Syndrome

POEMS syndrome is a clinical unit with a very heterogenous clinical behavior. Its diagnostics as well as monitoring are not easy and depend on clinicians experience. We present three case reports of patients with POEMS syndrome with different clinical manifestation and course of the disease. Our presentation demonstrates the benefit of the use of biochemical parameter VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor). Retrospective analysis revealed that VEGF behaved accordingly with the state of the disease, i.e. it increased in active phase and decreased with remission of the disease. We suggest the use of VEGF not only for the diagnostics but also as a potential marker of therapeutic response and for monitoring of the course of POEMS syndrome.