VCAM1 and neoplasm: VCAM-1 is expressed only by proliferating and not by quiescent perivascular cells.32 The growth of peritoneal metastasis has also been reported to be dependent on neovasculature.31,33 An explanation of the weak correlation between tumour size and serum sVCAM-1 concentration in our study might be that only the size of the primary tumour was included in the comparison and not the extent of peritoneal metastasis.