Expression analysis of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 and HER-2 genes in Iranian Breast Cancer patients

Introduction: Metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of proteolytic enzymes, MMP-9 is an important member of this family with collagenase activity which plays critical roles in several cancer occurrence and progression. On the other hand there are many reports about the overexpression of HER-2 in breast cancer. The aims of this study were to assess the clinical significance of MMP-9 and HER2 expression in invasive breast cancer and to determine its association with recurrence-free survival of the patients. Methods: The expression of MMP-9 and HER-2 were measured in 150 breast cancer patients (100 metastatic and 50 non metastatic) by Immunohistochemistry technique. The relation between MMP-9 and HER2 expression with clinicopathological feature of the patients was investigated with SPSS software and Kaplan-Meier method. Results: In carcinoma cells high expression of MMP-9 was related with the overexpression of HER2 and also with T2 tumor stage and lymph node involvement. In ER+ patient group positive MMP-9 expression was related with shorter breast cancer related survival (BCRS; P = 0.0081). Conclusions: we found a relation between the overexpression of MMP-9 and HER2 and shorter breast cancer related survival also an increased risk of lymph node invasion.

Keywords:

breast cancer , MMP-9 , Her2 , gene expression