VEGFA and cancer: The SII considers the abundance of lymphocytes that play a major role in inducing cytotoxic cell death and suppressing cancer cell proliferation (39), neutrophils that are known to secrete a variety of cytokines (VEGF, IL-8, IL-16, etc.)that stimulate tumor cell growth and metastasis (40), and platelets that can promote cancer cell arrest at the endothelium and support the establishment of secondary lesions of cancer cells (41).