Expression of MMP-26 and MMP-7 in gastric adenocarcinoma and its clinicopathological significance

Objective To investigate the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-26(MMP-26) and MMP-7 in gastric adenocarcinoma and its clinicopathological significance. Methods The expression of MMP-26 and MMP-7 was examined by Envision immunohistochemistry in 120 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma including 60 cases of gastric cardia cancer and 60 cases of gastric antrum cancer. Results The positive rate of MMP-26 was 46.7%. MMP-26 expression was significantly correlated with patients' age, well-differentiated cancer and cancer of gastric cardia, whereas the expression was negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis and clinical staging(P0.01). The positive rate of MMP-7 was 53.3%, which was significantly correlated with well-differentiated cancer, invasion depth, lymph node metastasis and clinical staging(P0.05). Conclusion The high expression of MMP-26 may indicate superficial invasion and low malignancy in gastric adenocarcinoma, but MMP-7 may be associated with tumor infiltration and metastasis in gastric cancer.