Worse prognosis in breast cancer patients can be predicted by immunohistochemical analysis of positive MMP-2 and negative estrogen and progesterone receptors

• Autor(a) principal: Ramos,Edneia A. S.
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Silva,Camila T. da, Manica,Graciele C. M., Pereira,Isabela T., Klassen,Liliane M. B., Ribeiro,Enilze M. S. F., Cavalli,Iglenir J., Braun-Prado,Karin, Lima,Rubens S., Urban,Cicero A., Costa,Fabrício F., Noronha,Lucia de, Klassen,Giseli
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista da Associação Médica Brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-42302016000800774
• topic: breast neoplasms; MMP-2; immunohistochemical; molecular marker

Summary Introduction: Breast cancer is the most cause of death, and approximately 90% of these deaths are due to metastases. Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) gelatinase activity is able to degrade a major constituent of the tumor microenvironment, type IV collagen. Two well-established proteins used as markers in clinical practice for breast cancer are the receptors for estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR). Although the presence of these receptors has been associated with a better prognosis, loss of these proteins can occur during tumor progression, with subsequent resistance to hormone therapy. Objective: To study the correlation among MMP-2, ER, and PR, as well as the establishment of the metastatic process in primary breast tumors. Method: Breast cancer samples (n=44) were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for MMP-2, ER, and PR. Results: We observed that 90% of patients who had metastases and died showed positive staining for MMP-2 (p=0.0082 for both). Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, we found that negative ER patients who were also positive for MMP-2 had even worse disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p= 0.012 and p=0.005, respectively). Similar results were found in PR-negative patients for DFS (a trend p=0.077) and OS (p=0.038). Conclusion: Regardless of our small sample size (n=44), the data obtained strongly suggest that MMP-2 in combination with already well-established markers could help to predict the emergence of metastases and death in patients with breast cancer.