Abstract: Malignant pleural effusion（MPE）refers to the pleural effusion caused by primary tumors or metastases tumor from other parts of the body to the pleura. The common clinical symptoms of MPE include progressive dyspnea，cough，atelectasis，chest pain，and fever. It can occur in almost all types of malignant tumors；however，lung cancer is the most common cause of MPE，accounting for about 1/3 of the clinical cases. Although there are many therapeutic approaches currently available for MPE，they are usually inefficient and many can only alleviate the symptoms of the patients.Vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF）has now been recognized as one of the most important regulatory factors in tumor angiogenesis，participating in the entire process of tumor growth through its function of stimulating tumor angiogenesis，it can activate host vascular endothelial cells，and promote malignant proliferation. The new drugs targeting VEGF，such as Endostar and Bevacizumab，have been developed and applied for the treatment of a variety of tumors. Data of recent clinical studies demonstrate that the medicines targeting VEGF are effective and safe for the clinical treatment of MPE. Therefore，VEGF-targeting represents apromising strategy for the diagnosis and treatment of MPE. This review briefly summarized recent progress of VEGF on diagnosis，pathogenesis，clinical treatment and prognosis of MPE in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer（NSCLC）.

Key words: vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF）, malignant pleural effusion（MPE）, nonsmall cell lung cancer（NSCLC）, diagnosis, pathogeny, clinical treatment