BACKGROUND: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is an important mediator of invasion and metastasis in neoplasia. In thyroid cancer expression levels correlate with aggressiveness but data on peripheral MMP-9 levels are less definitive. OBJECTIVE: Prospective study evaluating serum MMP-9 in the diagnosis and prognosis of papillary thyroid cancer. METHODS: Serum samples of MMP-9 were drawn before surgery in 185 consecutively enrolled patients with nodular thyroid disease, stratified on pathology as benign disease (N= 88) and papillary thyroid cancer (N= 97). Serum MMP-9 was measured by an immunometric assay. RESULTS: MMP-9 levels were not different between benign vs malignant pathology (p= 0.3). In papillary thyroid cancer there was no significant difference in MMP-9 levels between histologies, TNM stage and invasive/non-invasive cancers. High-risk patients with multiple features of aggressiveness had significantly higher MMP-9 levels compared to low-intermediate risk patients (767.5 ± 269.2 ng/ml vs 563.7 ± 228.4 ng/ml, p= 0.019). A cut-off of 806 ng/ml distinguished high from low-intermediate risk patients with a sensitivity of 60% and a specificity of 87.36%, p= 0.018. In patients with available follow-up data (N= 78), MMP-9 was higher in patients who required ⩾ 2 doses of 131I therapy (p= 0.009) and in those with biochemical evidence of persistent disease/who required additional therapy to achieve disease-free status (p= 0.017). CONCLUSION: Serum MMP-9 is not useful in the diagnosis of PTC, but preliminary data shows that high pre-surgical serum MMP-9 levels may identify patients at higher risk of persistent disease who require intensive treatment. Large volume prospective studies are required to confirm this observation.
Background: Head and neck carcinomas (HNC) account for a majority of ear, nose and throat tumours. They account for 6.3% of all incident malignancies and 6.2 % of all deaths from cancer in Romania in 2020, the fifth most common cancer in this Eastern Europe country. Aim of the study: The aim of our study was to investigate the association between two MMP-2 and MMP-9 promoter gene polymorphisms and head and neck cancer.
Methods. We enrolled 142 subjects, 65 cancer patients, and 77 control subjects and tested them for MMP-2 -735 C/T and MMP-9 -1562 C/T polymorphisms by PCR-RFLP.
Results. Comparison between cancer patients and controls demonstrated the presence of MMP-2 -735 C/T and MMP-9 -1562 C/T in head and neck malignant tumours, with OR = 2.206 (95% CI 1.058-4.599, P = 0.03) for MMP-2 and OR = 2.748 (95% C.I. 1.262-5.981, P=0.009) for MMP-9 gene polymorphism. This means that the presence of T allele could be a risk factor for head and neck cancer development. The analysis included a stratification of studied groups by age and gender.
Conclusions. Both genotypes were associated with a significant risk for head and neck carcinomas in case of the presence of the T allele. MMP-2 -735 C/T (rs2285053) and MMP-9 -1562 C/T (rs3918242) gene polymorphism could be an important genetic marker for head and neck cancer susceptibility. This finding could be useful for genetic screening in head and neck carcinomas.
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