Expression and significance of ADAM15 and MMP-9 in breast cancer tissues

OBJECTIVE To research the aberrant expression of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 15(ADAM15)protein and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9 )protein in breast cancer tissue and to study their prognostic significance,especially the relative role and mechanism of ADAM15 protein and MMP-9 protein to invasion and metastasis of breast cancer.METHODS SP immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of ADAM15 protein and MMP-9 protein in 30 cases of breast hyperplasia tissue,35 cases of breast cancer tissue without lymph node metastasis and 30 cases of breast cancer tissue with lymph node metastasis.RESULTS The expression rates of ADAM15 protein in breast cancer(40/65,61.54%)were obviously higher than those in breast hyperplasia(6/30,20.00%)(χ2=14.181,P0.001).The expression rates of MMP-9 protein in breast cancer(47/65,72.31%)were obviously higher than those in breast hyperplasia(9/30,30.00%)(χ2=15.183,P0.001).In addition,high expression of ADAM15 was associated with some clinic pathologic variables,including tumor size(χ2=4.745,P=0.029),clinical stage(χ2=4.214,P=0.040)and lymph nodes metastases(χ2=5.387,P=0.020).The expression of ADAM15 was not associated with age(χ2=2.467,P=0.116).The high expression of MMP-9 was associated with clinical stage(χ2=4.093,P=0.043)and lymph nodes metastasis(χ2=5.737,P=0.017),but the expression of MMP-9 was not associated with age(χ2=0.617,P=0.432)and tumor size(χ2=3.302,P=0.069).Spearman correlation analysis showed significant positive correlation between the expression of ADAM15 protein and MMP-9 protein in breast cancer tissue(r=0.439,P0.001).CONCLUSIONS It is suggested that in breast cancer the over expression of ADAM15 and MMP-9 is associated closely with clinical stage and lymph nodes metastases.ADAM15 and MMP-9 may be valuable prognosis markers for breast cancer patients.