Role of immunohistochemical overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and MMP-11 in the prognosis of death by ovarian cancer.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are enzymes thought to be involved in tumor invasion. We hypothesized that MMP-2 and MMP-11 overexpression was associated with the aggressiveness of ovarian carcinoma. This study was performed on samples from 100 patients with stage III ovarian carcinomas treated surgically between 1990 and 2000. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on ovarian tumors and peritoneal implants using monoclonal antibodies. Overexpression was defined as more than 10% of cells expressing the marker. Multivariate analyses showed that only MMP-2 overexpression by cancer cells in peritoneal implants was associated with a significant risk of death by disease (hazard ratio, 2.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.41-4.97; P = .003). MMP-11 overexpression was not predictive of survival. These results suggest that MMP-2 overexpression by cancer cells in peritoneal implants and not in the primary ovarian cancer is predictive of ovarian cancer prognosis and more likely reflects the presence of particularly aggressive clones of cancer cells. Ovarian carcinoma is the leading cause of death of all gynecologic tumors. It is usually diagnosed at a late stage because of its anatomic location and its relative asymptomatic occurrence. 1 Despite highly efficient first-line chemotherapy, no more than 10% to 30% of patients with advanced disease experience long-term survival. 2 Until now, few markers were found to predict tumor response to chemotherapy and prognosis in ovarian cancer. 3-5