Background Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in the formation of new blood vessels involved in the growth and metastatic spread of solid tumours. Moreover, increasing experimental evidence suggests that insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) may modulate tumour angiogenesis via activation of expression of VEGF in solid cancers. However, there is limited information regarding the clinical significance of serum IGF-1R and VEGFR levels in advanced gastric patients.

Purpose To evaluate whether serum IGF-1R/VEGFR could serve as biomarkers for the response of firstline chemotherapy and prognosis of advanced gastric cancer.

Material and methods Patients with clinically diagnosed advanced gastric cancer, including postoperative recurrence, without any treatment, were prospective enrolled from January 2014 to December 2014. Peripheral blood (5 mL) was collected after patient admission, the supernatant was centrifuged and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect serum IGF-1R/VEGFR in these participants. Clinicopathological features and survival times were recorded, and the association between IGF-1R, VEGFR levels and response of firstline chemotherapy as well as patient prognosis were analysed.

Results 32 advanced gastric cancer patients were enrolled in this study; 21 were men (76.6%) and 11 were women (23.4%). Median age was 58 years (range 34–70). Median performance status ECOG score was 1 (0–2). The histiotype of 22 patients was adenocarcinoma and the other 10 patients had signet ring cell carcinoma. 18 patients had previous surgery history. The firstline chemotherapy regimens used in these patients were mainly S-1 plus oxaliplatin (SOX) and capecitabine plus oxaliplatin (XELOX). The median values for IGF-1R and VEGFR were 126.7 ng/mL and 2388.5 ng/mL, respectively. High serum IGF-1R levels correlated with gender and previous surgery (both p<0.05), and high serum VEGFR levels correlated with age and gender (both p<0.05). Moreover, the response of firstline chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer patients with higher serum IGF-1R or VEGFR levels was poor (both p<0.05). Nevertheless, serum IGF-1R or VEGFR levels were not associated with overall survival times of these advanced gastric cancer patients.

Conclusion IGF-1R/VEGFR may be useful markers for the prediction of the response to firstline chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer.

No conflict of interest