Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate expression and prognostic value of matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. CRC tissues and corresponding distal normal mucosa tissues of 118 CRC patients were assessed by immunohistochemistry. Correlations between MMP-7 expression, patients' clinic pathological features, and overall survival rate were analyzed. We found that positive expression of MMP- 7 in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that in distal normal mucosa (61.0% vs. 39.8%, p=0.001). Poor histological differentiation, advanced clinical stage and lymph node metastasis were significantly correlated with MMP-7 expression in CRC. The overall survival rate was significantly higher in the MMP-7 negative group than the positive group (Log-rank test=9.957, p=0.002). MMP-7 appeared as a significant independent prognostic factor through multivariate survival analysis. Collectively, we found MMP-7 expression to be correlated with progression and metastasis of CRC and thus could be used as a predictive marker of prognosis in CRC patients.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent cancers in the world
In and maintains cellular functions by mediating cell-cell this study, we found that matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) expression in colorectal or cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions
High levels of matrix-degrading metalloproteinases (MMPs)-7 expression in cancer cells correlated with poor histological differentiation, deep infiltration, lymph node metastasis and high Dukes’stage (Table 1)
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent cancers in the world. According to the statistical data from International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in 2008, 1.24 million new cases of colorectal cancer were clinically diagnosed, and this type of cancer killed 610,000 people. Matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7), known as matrilysin, is the smallest member of matrix-degrading metalloproteinases (MMPs) which play important role in degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM). It is expressed in epithelial tumor cells instead of interstitial cells and is associated with cancer progression (Matthew et al, 2003). Because the proteolysis of ECM is essential for the occurrence, development and progression of cancer, MMP-7 expression plays a crucial role at early stage of tumor invasion and metastasis. In early invasive colorectal carcinomas, MMP-7 expression was significantly and independently associated with distant metastasis or adverse outcome through multivariate logistic regression analysis (Masaki et al, 2001). We investigated retrospectively MMP-7 expression in CRC tissues and distal normal mucosa tissues of 118 CRC patients, and analyzed the association of MMP-7 expression with clinicopathologic features and prognosis using univariate and multivariate analysis
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