Matriksiny in Blood Serum Before and After Surgical Treatment and Its Connection With Protein HER-2/NEU

Abstract

In this study, we analyzed two things. Firstly, it was the concentration of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) -2, -7, and -9 in the serum of patients with breast cancer (BC) before and two weeks after the surgical removal of the tumor, and secondly, we analyzed possible connection of MMPs with protein human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2/neu). We also set the comparative analysis of the content of MMP-2, MMP-7, and MMP-9 in tumor (BC) tissues and histologically intact tissues, paying attention to the content of sex hormone receptors and the protein HER-2/neu. We found out that there is the existence of a definite connection between the content of MMPs -2, -7, and -9 types and tumor’s receptor status in BC patients. The content of MMP-7 and MMP-9 was significantly higher in the prognostically unfavorable receptor status. Significantly higher values of MMP-2 and -7 detected in tumor’s tissue comparing to histologically intact tissue. We found out that increased concentration of MMP-2 in the tumor was connected with the status of the tumor’s receptors (p < 0.05). The highest concentrations of MMP-7 and MMP-9 were found in tumors, which were larger than 4.0cm. The lowest initial content of MMP-9 in the serum was found in patients with low-differentiated tumors (p = 0.04), high initial concentrations of MMP-2 have been identified in patients with Stage III, which may be clinically unfavorable sign. The results of the research show us that the concentration of metalloproteinases in serum of BC patients determined before surgical treatment, reflects the prevalence of oncological process. We believe that it is necessary to analyze the concentration of MMP in serum and tissues at the same time and also examine the content of endogenous inhibitors in the same patients.