IV-HCC: Clinical and prognostic implications of plasma IGF-1 and VEGF in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

155 Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a vascular tumor, derived mainly by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-mediated angiogenesis. It is always associated with chronic liver disease (CLD) and cirrhosis, which directly affect survival of HCC patients. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is produced predominantly in the liver, and therefore, CLD is associated with low levels of IGF-1. Methods: 288 new consecutive patients with HCC were eligible for the study between 2001 and 2008 at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Baseline clinicopathologic features, CLIP and BCLC staging, plasma IGF-1 and VEGF levels were available and multivariate Cox regression models and median survival were calculated. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to estimate overall survival and the log-rank test was used to compare survival probabilities in patients with different IGF-1 and VEGF levels. Recursive partitioning was used to determine the optimal cut point for IGF-1 and VEGF, using repeated training/validation samples...