The authors examined 25 patients with prostate cancer (PC) and 36 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In the group of patients with morphologically verified PC mean serum level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was significantly higher than in patients with BPH (p < 0.05). The study demonstrated strong negative association between VEGF and prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels (r = 0.72, p < 0.05) in PC patients. There was no association between VEGF serum level and the stage or malignancy of PC (Gleason score). In benign prostatic glands moderate VEGF expression was observed only in basal cells, whereas in cases of PC all tumor cells displayed active VEGF expression; the difference was significant (p < 0.05). High serum VEGF levels and its active expression in patients with PC suggest an important role of angiogenic factors in the pathogenesis of this disease. The negative association between VEGF and PSA serum levels in PC indirectly confirms antiangiogenic activity of PSA, shown before.

To study the levels of vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF), insulin-like growth factor of type I and II (IGF-I and IGF-II), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and their correlations in prostatic cancer (PC) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), we examined 38 PC patients (mean age 66.6 +/- 5.5 years) and 80 BPH patients (mean age 60.3 +/- 2.5 years). Serum concentrations of VEGF, IGF-I and IGF-II were measured using kits made by R&D (USA), PSA by Boehringer Mannheim (Germany). Sensitivity and specificity of the tests were analysed by plotting the curves. The serum VEGF concentration in PC patients was 518.9 +/- 60.7 pkg/ml, in BPH patients--267.9 +/- 99.9 pkg/ml (p < 0.001). The IGF-I and IGF-II it was 178 +/- 19 and 136 +/- 9 ng/ml (p < 0.05), 400 +/- 31 and 351 +/- 23 ng/ml (p < 0.05), respectively. The ratio of growth factor concentration to PSA concentration in the blood serum in BPH patients was higher than in PC patients (p < 0.01). Sensitivity and specificity of PSA (4 ng/ml) made up 85.7 and 57%, VEGF (151.5 pg/ml)--76.2 and 57.6%, IGF-I (157 ng/ml)--57.6 and 50%; IGF-II (392 ng/ml)--57.5 and 50%, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity VEGF/PSA was 85.7 and 70%; IGF-I/PSA--84.2 and 75%; IGF-II/PSA--84.2 and 79.6%, respectively. Thus, the ratio of concentrations of IGF-I, IGF-II and VEGF to PSA level in blood serum has high sensitivity and specificity for PC detection. Clinical implications of serum levels of VEGF, IGF-I and IGF-II for prediction of PC course and detection is to be elicited.

The efficacy of monotherapy with one of the analogues of synthetic nucleosides (lamivudine) was studied in 22 patients with chronic viral hepatitis B (CVHB). The specific feature of the selected group was that there was no serum HBeAg, which is usually regarded as a sign of viral mutation. The time course of changes in the activity of blood and hepatic inflammatory processes and viral replication were studied at equal intervals. There was a direct correlation between the suppression of viral replication and the regression of activity indices, such as ALT, serological markers, DNA of viral hepatitis B, and the morphological constituents of the Knodell index) during lamivudine therapy. However, there were no substantial changes in the parameters of fibrosis throughout the treatment. Therapy resistance was revealed in 3 of the 22 patients with CVHV. Its basis was the mutation of hepatitis B virus in the YMDD-motive, which was detected in 2 of the 3 patients.