Assessment of soluble angiogenic markers in pancreatic cancer

Angiogenic markers such as VEGF/basic FGF (bFGF) can enlarge the diagnostic biomarkers panel for pancreatic cancer. Materials & methods: Serum samples from 32 stage I-IV pancreatic cancer patients and 20 controls were analyzed for soluble VEGF/bFGF by ELISA and xMAP array. Results: VEGF/bFGF serum levels were significantly increased in patients compared with controls (p < 0.0001). We report a correlation with tumor diameter (p < 0.01/p < 0.05), stage (p < 0.001), Ki67LI (p < 0.005/p < 0.05) and carbohydrate 19-9 antigen (p < 0.005/p < 0.001). VEGF/bFGF levels analyzed by xMAP array were comparable with the pattern (patient/control) outline obtained by ELISA tests. We obtained a good correlation between these two soluble angiogenic markers (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Data obtained for angiogenic markers qualifies them as important candidates in the pancreatic cancer biomarker panel.