Clinical Significance of the Expression of MMP-2,MMP-7 in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Objective:To investigate the expression of MMP-2、MMP-7 in papillary thyroid carcinoma and examine the correlations between the positive expression rate and several clinicopathological parameters.Methods:We examined the expression of MMP-2,MMP-7 in 45 paraffin-embedded specimens with papillary thyroid carcinoma and 27 thyroid benign lesion specimens by immunohistochemistry(SP).Results:The rate of positive expression of MMP-2,MMP-7 was 77.8%,22.2% and 42.2%,11% in PTC and benign lesion tissues,respectively.The expression of MMP-2,MMP-7 was significantly higher in cancer tissue than benign lesion tissues (P0.05).The proportion of over expression of MMP-2 and decreased MMP-7 was higher statistically in large tumor(2cm)、lymph node metastasis compared to control groups (P0.05)Conclusion:High expression of MMP-2 with low expression of MMP-7 are linked to aggressive characteristics of papillary thyroid carcinoma and may even be a marker of lymph node metastasis and capsule infiltration in patients.