Kamat AA et al. (2006) The clinical relevance of stromal matrix metalloproteinase expression in ovarian cancer. Clin Cancer Res 12: 1707–1714

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have a key role in the invasion and metastasis of a variety of tumors. Researchers have investigated whether epithelial (tumor-cell-derived) and stromal (host-derived) MMPs can be used to predict clinical outcome in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC).

Samples from 90 patients with EOCs were immunohistochemically stained for MMP-2, MMP-9 and MT1-MMP. High protein expression levels of any of the three stromal MMPs or epithelial MT1-MMP was associated with high tumor stage, high tumor grade, presence of ascites, and positive lymph node status. High levels of epithelial MMP-2 correlated only with positive lymph node status; high epithelial MMP-9 expression was not associated with any of the prognostic variables. In total, 55 deaths occurred, 52 of which were attributable to EOC. High epithelial or stromal expression of any of the three MMPs was associated with shorter median disease-specific survival. Multivariate analyses showed that high tumor stage, high expression of stromal MMP-9 and high expression of epithelial or stromal MT1-MMP were independently associated with poorer disease-specific survival.

The study indicates that high expression of stromal MMP-9 or MT1-MMP is associated with poor prognosis in patients with EOC. The authors state that further study is needed but that epithelial and stromal MMPs might be important targets for future ovarian cancer therapies.