Abstract: Objective This study aimed to investigate serum vascular endothelial growth factor C (sVEGF-C) levels in predicting the prognosis of patients with gallbladder cancer (GC). Methods 58 patients with GC and 42 patients with chronic cholecystitis (CC) were enrolled in our hospital between March 2019 and March 2021. They all received ultrasonography, and the patients with GC underwent surgical resection of tumors. Serum sVEGF-C levels were detected by ELISA, and serum CA153 levels were detected by radioimmunoassay. The efficacy of parameters in diagnosing GC was assessed by area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC), and the risk factors of prognosis after operation in patients with GC were analyzed by multivariate Logistic regression analysis. Results Serum CA153 and sVEGF-C levels in patients with GC were (60.6±11.0)U/ml and (72.4±18.5)pg/ml, significantly higher than [(27.5±8.1)U/ml and (37.8±10.3)pg/ml, respectively, P＜0.05] in patients with CC; the gallbladder wall was (29.1±10.4)mm, significantly greater than [(14.7±2.3)mm, P＜0.05] in patients with CC, the percentage of gallbladder wall uneven rigidity and diffusive incrassation were 72.4% and 39.7%, significantly higher than (21.4% and 19.0%, respectively, P＜0.05) in patients with CC; the diagnostic efficacy by the combination of sonography as well as serum CA153 and sVEGF-C levels was the highest with the AUC of 0.872, the sensitivity of 89.5% and the accuracy of 91.8%; at the end of six-month follow-up, the mortality was 34.5% in our series; the univariate Logistic analysis showed that the prognosis was significantly different between patients with different tumor location at gallbladder, TNM stages, and serum sVEGF-C and CA153 levels (P＜0.05), and the multivariate Logistic analysis demonstrated that the TNM states (OR=3.622, 95%CI=1.106-8.856) and serum sVEGF-C levels (OR=2.237, 95%CI=1.126-4.442) were the independent risk factors impacting on the prognosis of patients with GC after tumor resection (P＜0.05). Conclusion Serum sVEGF-C levels increase in patients with GC, and serum CA153 and sVEGF-C level based on ultrasonography could be helpful in diagnosing patients with GC. The GC patients with high serum sVEGF-C levels might have a poor prognosis.

Key words: Gallbladder cancer, Carbohydrate antigen 153, Vascular endothelial growth factor C, Prognosis