Abstract:Objective:To measure circulating vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) levels in patients with colorectal carcinoma, and assess the clinical significance in diagnosis of lymph node metastasis. Methods:Sixty-six patients with colorectal carcinoma and 30 healthy control patients were included in this study. Circulating VEGF-C and VEGF levels were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results:Serum VEGF-C and VEGF concentration was higher in patients with colorectal carcinoma than in healthy control patients(P<0.01). Patients with lymph node metastasis revealed higher serum VEGF-C and VEGF concentrations than those without hymph node metastasis(P<0.01). The level of VEGF-C and VEGF in lymphatic vessel invasion and venous invasion was higher in the group with invasion than in the group without invasion(P<0.01). Serum VEGF-C levels reached a sensitivity of 81.0% and a specificity of 76.0% with a cutoff value of 1438.0 pg/mL, whereas VEGF levels reached 72.0% sensitivity and 74.0% specificity at 240.2 pg/mL. With combined determination of VEGF-C and VEGF levels, the positive predictive value was 84.6%, the negative predictive value was 94.6%, and accuracy was 93.7%. Conclusions:Circulating VEGF-C levels may provide additional information for distinguishing between the absence or presence of lymph node metastasis in patients with colorectal carcinoma.VEGF-C can become a new target spot in the treatment of lymphatic metastasis in patients with colorectal cancer.