α-fetoprotein, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 and early recurrence of hepatoma

Figure 1 Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 mRNA in bone marrow detected by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The mean VEGFR-1/GAPDH mRNA ratio in the bone marrow (BM-VEGFR-1 mRNA) of normal controls was 0.1497 × 10^-3 (range: 0.0212 × 10^-3-0.3213 × 10^-3). The mean BM-VEGFR-1 mRNA level in HCC patients was measured at 3.8474 × 10^-3 (range: 0.3481 × 10^-3-29.5885 × 10^-3). HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; VEGFR: Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor; BM: Bone marrow; GAPDH: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase.

Figure 2 Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 mRNA in peripheral blood detected by real-time quantitative real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The mean VEGFR-1/GAPDH mRNA ratio in the peripheral blood (PH-VEGFR-1 mRNA) of normal controls was 2.4944 × 10^-3 (range: 1.0730 × 10^-3-4.6958 × 10^-3). The mean PH-VEGFR-1 mRNA level in HCC patients was 9.1285 × 10^-3 (range: 1.2774 × 10^-3-174.4928 × 10^-3). HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; VEGFR: Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor; PH: Peripheral blood; GAPDH: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase.

Figure 3 Patients were classified into four groups according to the level/status of their bone marrow-vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 and bone marrow-α-fetoprotein mRNA as follows: group A (n = 23), bone marrow-vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1/bone marrow-α-fetoprotein mRNA = low/negative; group B (n = 57) high/negative; group C (n = 10) low/positive; group D (n = 24), high/positive. The disease-free survival (DFS) curve of group A was significantly better than that of groups B, C or D (P = 0.0437, P = 0.0325, P = 0.0225).