Purpose: A hepatocellular carcinoma is an epithelial cancer, originating from hepatocytes, and frequently shows early invasion into blood vessels, with intrahepatic metastasis. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are endogenous peptidases capable of degrading various components of basement membranes. The ability of malignant epithelial cells to degrade extracellular matrices and basement membranes are important steps in the metastatic invasion process, and it is necessary for cancer cells to acquire this cleavage ability in order to become invasive.
Methods: To evaluate the clinical significance of the expressions of MMPs in hepatocellular carcinomas, twentyfive patients with hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC group), and twelve patients with normal livers (control group), were enrolled in this study between July 2001 and July 2002.
Results: The expression of MMP-9 was significantly elevated in the HCC group (80.3±9.4) compared with that of the control group (54.7±5.6) (P<0.05). The expressions of MMP-9 in the large (greater than 5 cm) and small (lesser than 5 cm) sized tumor groups were 90.2±6.0 and 77.1±1.8, respectively. In positive and negative vascular invasion groups the levels of MMP-9 expression were 91.6±3.2 and 75.9±6.9 and in the positive and negative capsular infiltration groups they were 89.3±6.3 and 78.0±8.7, respectively. The levels MMP-9 expression in the HCC patients with large tumors (>5 cm), vascular invasion and capsular infiltration were significantly higher than in those without these clinical manifestations (p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between MMP-9 expression and liver cirrhosis or histological type.
Conclusion: The present study shows a close relationship between the expression of MMP-9 and capsular infiltration, vessel invasion and tumor stage in HCC. MMP-9 may be used as a prognostic marker and for the development of strategies for the treatment modality in HCC.
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