Purpose : Plasma VEGF levels are elevated after minimally invasive colon resection (MICR) and may pose a danger for colon cancer (CRC) patients. It is thought that surgical wounds produce VEGF which enters the circulation. VEGF induces angiogenesis in wounds and tumors by binding to endothelial cell bound VEGF-Receptor 1 (VEGFR1) and VEGF-Receptor 2 (VEGFR2). Soluble VEGFR1 (sVEGFR1) and sVEGFR2, not capable of signal transduction, bind VEGF in the blood and decrease free VEGF levels and limit VEGF’s proangiogenic effects. This study’s purpose was to assess plasma levels of sVEGFR1 and 2 in CRC patients after MICR.
Methods: Blood samples were obtained preoperatively (PreOp) and on postoperative day (POD) 1 and 3(n=45). In some patients a 4th and a 5th sample were taken between POD 7-13 and POD 14-30 after surgery. sVEGFR1 and 2 levels were measured via ELISA and the results reported as median + 95% CI for sVEFGR1 and mean ±SD for sVEGFR2. The POD 7-13 and POD 14-30 samples were bundled and considered as two separate time points. The student t-test was used for sVEGFR2 and the Wilcoxon signed rank test for sVEGFR1 (significance, p
Session: Poster
Program Number: P128