الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in both developed and developing nations. selection of the most beneficial treatment regimens in CRC remains a challenge and is hindered by a lack of predictive and prognostic markers. Martix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) is the smallest metalloproteinases, it promotes cancer invasion via proteolytic cleavage of extra-cellular matrix (ECM) proteins and also activates other MMPs. Its expression in colorectal cancer tissues was significantly higher than in adjacent normal tissues. Methods: An immunohistochemical method was used to evaluate the expression of MMP-7 in 40 CRC cases. Furthermore, correlation of MMP-7 expression and clinicopathologica data was done and analyzed. Results: Most (30 out of 40) CRC cases showed positive expression for MMP-7 (75% of total cases). Statistically significant relationships were detected between MMP-7 expression with gross pattern and histologic type. where MMP-7 expression was high in ulcerative gross pattern (84.6%) and non-mucinous adenocarcinoma histologic type (82.4%). Conclusions: High expression of MMP-7 was observed in tumor cells of CRC cases. The current study results suggest that expression of MMP-7 by cancer cells might have important implications in colorectal carcinoma pathology and could be useful biological marker of malignant growth and potential target for future therapy |