Association of Serum VEGF level with Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma in An Iranian Population

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

M.  Samsam Shariat ¹ (گروه زیست شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)
K.  Parivar ² (گروه زیست شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)
M.  Hedayati ³ (مرکز تحقیقات سلولی مولکولی غدد درون ریز، پژوهشکده علوم غدد درون ریز و متابولیسم، دانشگاه علوم پزشکی شهید بهشتی، تهران، ایران)
P.  Yaghmaee ⁴ (گروه زیست شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات تهران، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران)

Received: 2016-10-15 Accepted : 2017-05-21 Published : 2016-11-21

Keywords: Vascular endothelial growth factor, Thyroid cancer, Medullary,

Abstract :

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a signal protein produced by cells that stimulates vasculogenesis, angiogenesis and lymph angiogenesis. Cancers expressing VEGF are able to grow and metastasize. As thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer and medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is an aggressive metastatic cancer, the aim of this study is the relationship between serum VEGF levels and the increased risk of MTC. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted, 45 patients with MTC (21 males and 24 females) and 45 healthy persons as control group (24 male and 21 females) were selected. Serum VEGF levels were determined by ELISA technique in both groups. Data analysis was performed using Medcalc 14.8.1 and SPSS22.There was no statistically significant difference in serum VEGF levels between total MTC patients and total control groups, but serum VEGF levels in female MTC group were significantly higher than those in female control group (P