Relationship Between Preoperative Serum TSH Levels And Expression Of VEGF In Differentiated Thyroid Carcinom

Purpose:Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) makes up the majority of thyroid cancers, Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) stimulates angiogenesis, increases vascular permeability and seems to correlate with aggressiveness of tumors. Increased expression of VEGF has been observed in Differentiated thyroid carcinoma(DTC).TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is the major thyroid hormone,but its relationship with VEGF has seldom been studied.Therefore, We explored whether immunohistochemical expression of VEGF is related to serum TSH level.Methods:VEGF expression was analyzed in43archived Differentiated thyroid carcinoma(DTC) specimens (2006.3-2007.2) using immunohistochemistry,with adjacent normal thyroid tissues used as controls.Serum TSH was measured by immunoradiometric assay before surgery,and correlated with VEGF expression.Results:Positive VEGF expression was found in90.7%of43PTC tissues, but not in normal tissues. The serum TSH levels revealed a positive correlation with VEGF expression, R=0.592(p<0.01). The study also showed that the levels of serum TSH and VEGF expression were not correlated with age,gender, TNM stages, Lymph node metastasis and Tumor size classification. Conclusions:TSH is a major thyroid hormone, Whether TSH promotes the progression of DTC is not known, but The serum TSH levels reveal a positive correlation with VEGF expression...