RESUMO
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of metronomic chemotherapy on serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in cancer patients. METHODS: The study included 11 metastatic cancer patients who received daily 50 mg cyclophosphamide and biweekly 5 mg methotrexate per os as metronomic chemotherapy. Bevacizumab together with FOLFIRI chemotherapy was administered as anti-angiogenic treatment in another group of 16 metastatic colorectal carcinoma patients. Furthermore, VEGF levels of 10 healthy individuals and 5 cord blood samples served for comparisons. VEGF levels of patients before therapy and 3 months after treatment were analyzed and compared. RESULTS: Serum VEGF levels prior to metronomic chemotherapy were higher compared with the healthy controls (p=0.0001). Similarly, serum VEGF levels prior to the bevacizumab-based chemoimmunotherapy were significantly higher compared with the healthy controls (p=0.005). In patients on metronomic chemotherapy VEGF levels showed non significant decrease (p=0.075). On the contary, VEGF levels decreased significantly (p=0.002) with bevacizumab treatment. CONCLUSION: Serum VEGF levels may be used for assessing of the efficacy of anti-angiogenic therapies.
