A pilot study was undertaken to find significance of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and cancer antigen (CA 15.3) in breast cancer patients.

Total 70 patients with breast cancer were divided into triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and non-TNBC depending on oestrogen receptors, progesterone receptors or HER-2/neu receptors status. Serum CA 15.3 and VEGF levels were evaluated with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at the time of diagnosis and were correlated with age, tumour size and stage of the disease in both the groups. Spearman's test was used to find the correlation.

VEGF levels were found to be >400 pg/ml in 27 patients, 19 (54·33%) of them were TNBC and only 8 (22·87%) non-TNBC. Mean values of the VEGF were, 784·34 pg/ml in TNBC and 334·60 pg/ml non-TNBC patients, respectively. CA 15.3 level was found to be higher in non-TNBC group (60·72 U/ml) than in TNBC group (45·24 U/ml). In all patients significant correlation was found between serum CA 15.3 level and tumour size and stage of the disease. In non-TNBC patients significant correlation was seen between CA 15.3 values and stage of the disease, but VEGF had no correlation with any of the disease parameters. In TNBC patients, there was no correlation between CA 15.3 level and any of the disease parameters but VEGF showed a significant correlation with both tumour size and stage of the disease.

Expression profile of VEGF was high in TNBC than non-TNBC patients. VEGF serves to be a better biomarker as compared with CA 15.3 in TNBC patients.