Vascular endothelial growth factor and interleukin-8 are associated with poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer patients

Background: Ovarian cancer represents an important problem in gynecologic oncology. A growing tumor induces the host endothelial cells to proliferate and supply the requisite vascular support allowing tumor development. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) have been demonstrated to induce angiogenesis in epithelial tumors in vivo. Patients and methods: This study included 24 tumors from patients with epithelial ovarian cancer in different stages, in addition to 20 tissue samples of benign ovarian lesions as a control group. VEGF has been measured in the cytosolic fractions using enzyme immunoassay and confirmed by Western blot analysis. Tissue IL-8 mRNA was assessed using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry for its protein. Results: VEGF mean rank was significantly higher in ovarian cancer tumors compared to benign lesions (P < 0.001). Moreover, it was increased with advanced stages (P < 0.05) and in patients with poor survival (P < 0.05). Eight samples were positive for IL-8 mRNA, seven of them were in malignant group, with highest frequency in stages III and IV of the disease (6/12, 50%). IL-8 correlated with poor survival of the patients (P < 0.05). Log rank of Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was significant for FIGO stage, VEGF, and IL-8 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These results indicate that VEGF and IL-8 are related to the malignant transformation process and can be considered as indicators of poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer patients. (C) 2004 Published by The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists.