BMC Cancer 2009, 9:421 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/9/421 p<0.0029 for Rvs NC p<0.0p0<290.f0o0r01Rfvosr NRCvs P p<0.0001 for R vs P p=0-2857 p<0.2857 for NC for vNsPCvs P No change (NC) Remission (R) p<0.0005 p<0.0001 Remission + No change Remission Progression (P) Progression No change + Progression FCiogrurreelat1ion of therapy response and overall survival Correlation of therapy response and overall survival. 1A, Kaplan-Meier survival curves for overall survival of patients with remission (R), no change (NC), and progression (P) at time of staging investigations after third therapy cycle. 1B, for eval- uation 1, patients with progressive disease (P) were compared with patients having remission and stable disease (R + NC). 1C, for evaluation 2, patients with remission (R) were compared with patients having progressive and stable disease (P + NC). Evaluation of plasma VEGF levels in various response groups We quantified plasma VEGF levels before first (BV1), sec- ond (BV2) and third (BV3) cycles of chemotherapy in 42 NSCLC patients and correlated it with response to ther- apy. Except at cycle 1 (BV1), most patients with remission had considerably lower baseline VEGF levels before the various treatment cycles (BV2 and BV3) than patients with no change and even more than patients with progressive disease (Table 4 and Figure 2). Table 3: Univariate survival analysis of prognostic factors of NSCLC (n = 42) Variables Age (years) <60 ≥ 60 Stage III IV T factor T2-T3 T4 N factor N0-N1 N2-N3 ECOG 1 2-3 Histology SCC ADC Smoking habit Smokers Non-smokers Tobacco habit Yes No Plasma VEGF (median) <275.2 pg/mL ≥ 275.2 pg/mL n 27 15 23 19 17 25 21 21 30 12 31 11 36 06 08 34 21 21 Median survival (95% CI) (days) 370.0 (301.3-438.7) 333.0 (244.6-421.4) 416.0 (369.1-462.8) 327. 0 (298.7-355.3) 431.0 (315.3-546.7) 348.0 (248.3-447.6) 394.0 (312.2-475.8) 348.0 (310.1-385.9) 403.0 (327.9-478.0) 333.0 (311.5-354.5) 367.0 (288.1-445.9) 394.0 (324.8-463.1) 370.0 (294.0-446.0) 367.0 (248.7-485.3) 394.0 (352.3-435.6) 314.0 (266.0-362.0) 348.0 (246.1-449.9) 370.0 (288.3-451.7) P 0.665 0.163 0.051 0.380 0.130 0.270 0.745 0.022 0.885 T, tumor; N, nodal status; ECOG, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval. Page 5 of 12 (page number not for citation purposes)