Expression and significance of gelatinases in laryngeal squamous cancer

Objective To investigate the relationships of gelatinase A and gelatinase B expressions with clinicopathological feature and prognosis of laryngeal squamous cancer. Methods The expressions of gelatinase A and gelatinase B in 70 samples of laryngeal squmous cancer and corresponding para-tumorous tissues were examined with immunohistochemical technique. The relationships of their expressions to clinicopathology and prognosis of laryngeal squamous cancer were analyzed. Results The positive expression of gelatinase A and gelatinase B were significantly higher than that of para-tumorous tissues (P 0.01). And the expression of gelatinases had close relationships with T grade, neck nodal metastases and clinical stage (P 0.05). In the log-rank test the survival rate of gelatinase A or gelatinase B high positive group was obviously lower than that in gelatinase A or gelatinase B weak positive and negative groups (P 0.05). Conclusion Gelatinases might play an important role in the progress of laryngeal squamous cancer. To examine the expressions of gelatinases may be useful in estimating prognosis of laryngeal squamous cancer.