The aim of the study was to analyze the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and endostatin in non-small cell lung caner (NSCLC), and to explore their correlations with NSCLC. 80 NSCLC patients during January 2013 to June 2014 were selected. The expression levels of VEGF, TGF-β1, and endostatin before surgeries were detected, and compared with 40 healthy individuals and 40 patients with benign pulmonary diseases. Serum VEGF, TGF-β1, and endostatin levels were (573.6 ± 25.4) pg/mL, (36.2 ± 10.5) ng/mL, and (20.3 ± 7.8) ng/mL, respectively, in NSCLC group, which were obviously higher than those in healthy individuals and patients with benign pulmonary diseases, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05); there was no statistical difference of the VEGF, TGF-β1, and endostatin levels between the healthy individuals and patients with benign pulmonary diseases (p > 0.05), or among patients with different physiological characteristics such as gender, age, and smoking history in NSCLC group (p > 0.05). Serum VEGF, TGF-β1, and endostatin levels also showed no statistical difference among patients with different pathological characteristics such as histological types, with or without lymphatic metastasis (p > 0.05). However, the three indicators were significantly different among patients with different TNM stages, with or without distant metastasis and different cell differentiation degrees (p < 0.05). Serum VEGF and TGF-β1 were positively related (r = 0.479, p < 0.05), endostatin was negatively related to both VEGF and TGF-β1 (r = -0.392, -0.354, p < 0.05 in both comparisons). The expression levels of VEGF, TGF-β1, and endostatin significantly contributed to the poor cell differentiation in NSCLC. They had important effects on the occurrence, development, and metastasis of NSCLC, which could be applied as the indicators to predict the malignancy of NSCLC.
Keywords: Endostatin; Non-small cell lung cancer; Transforming growth factor β1; Vascular endothelial growth factor.