| Summary: | Breast canceris among the priorityhealthproblems, globally and
nationally. Key success of breast cancer treatment depends on early
detectionandcomprehensive clinical management, especially by using
appropriateprognostic factorsaffectingclinicaloutcomes. Metastasisand the
increase of primary tumor size is related with poor prognosis. Tumor
progressionandmetastasisis closely related tothe process ofangiogenesis.Vascular
Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) is a proangiogenesis factor that plays
important role in the angiogenesis process. However, various studies concerning
the roles of VEGF in breast cancer showed inconsistent results. Until currently, in
Sardjito Teaching Hospital, no particular study was conducted to assess the
correlation of serum VEGF levels with tumor size in breast cancer patients.
This study specifically aims to assess the correlation of VEGF serum
levels with the size of the primary tumor in breast cancer. Subjects wereoperable
breast cancer patients who visited the Oncology Tulip clinic and underwent
treatment at the ward. Data were collected from various sources including
interviews with questionnaires, medical record file and results of sample
examination. Data normality was assessed withSaphiro Wilk test. Accordingly,
mean differences of VEGF serum levels between groups were assessed with
Independent-ttest or Mann Whitney and One way Annova test. To obtain the
correlation between VEGF serum levels with tumor size, Spearman correlation
has been applied.
The study included 40 patients with operable breast cancer. The results of
this study showed that the median of VEGF serum was 541.53 (96.87 to 1413.48)
pg/mL. VEGF serum meanof breast cancer subjects with stage IBwas 132.29 (±
50.18) pg/mL, stage IIA was 541.09 (± 315.03) pg / ml, stage IIB was 582.5 (±
296.27) pg/mL, stage IIIA 713.70 (± 432.05) pg/mL, and stage IIIB was 900.90 (±
724.90) pg/mL. There weremean differences of VEGF serum levels based on the
clinical stage of breast cancer. No mean differences of VEGF serum were found
between subjects withtumor size of T1, T2, and T3 and those with and without
lymph node metastasis. However, there was a positive correlation between serum
VEGF levels with the size of the primary tumor in breast cancer, with r = 0.46 and
p = 0.03.
Key words : breast cancer, tumor size, angiogenesis, Vascular EndothelialGrowth
Factor, serum
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