The Research Progress of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Invasion and Metastasis of Gastric Cancer

As is known to all, the most important thing for treating gastric cancer is to prevent its invasion and metastasis, which are the most common causes of treatment failure and mortality. When in- vasion and metastasis happened, it always accompanied with the integrity destruction of the extracellular matrix and the basement membrane. And it often leads to the change of tumor cell adhesion ability and angiogenesis as well. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) plays a significant role in the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer. As a therapeutic target, the drugs affected on MMPs had reached the stage of clinical trials. I will make a simple review to introduce the role of MMPs in the invasion and metastasis of gastric cancer.