Expression And Clinical Significance Of MT1-MMP In Epithelial Ovarian Carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the expression of membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) protein in epithelial ovarian carcinoma and its relation to clinicopathological parameters, angiogenesis and prognosis.Methods: Immunohistochemical staining (SP method) was used to detect the expression of MTl-MMP protein and microvessel density (MVD) in 56 epithelial ovarian carcinomas, 15 epithelial benign tumors of ovary, and 10 normal ovary tissues.Results: The expression of MTl-MMP protein in epithelial ovarian carcinomas (67.9%) was significantly higher than those in benign ovarian tumors (26.7%) and normal ovaries (10%) (p<0.01). The expression level of MTl-MMP correlated with MVD in epithelial ovarian carcinoma (p<0.05, r_s=0.279). The positive expression of MTl-MMP protein in epithelial ovarian carcinoma with advanced FIGO stage, poor differentiation, lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than those with early FIGO stage, well differentiation, and without lymph node metastasis, 75.0% vs 25.0%, 75.0% vs 25.0%, 86.7% vs 46.2%, respectively (p<0.05). In univariate analysis, the positive expression level of MTl-MMP protein correlated with poor prognosis, but didn' t retain predictive value in multivariate analysis. Furthermore, the median survival time of patients with negative expression of MTl-MMP protein was significantly higher than those with positive expression of MTl-MMP protein in advanced stage and the diameters of maximum residual tumor smaller than 2 cm, 20.2 months vs 11.1 months and 35.0 months vs 14.0 months, respectively.Conclusions: Overexpression of MTl-MMP in epithelial ovarian carcinoma may play an important role during tumor angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis. Moreover, it may be of value to predict the patients' prognosis combined with other markers.