Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Expression and Status of Cervical Lymph Nodes in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Tumor growth and metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients was suspected as a role of several molecular biomarkers that have been identified in tumor specimens of patients with NPC. Invasion and metastasis process was a complex mechanism which involved some proteolytic enzymes, such as matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). To analyze the association of MMP-9 expression of NPC patients with cervical lymph node metastasis. The study was conducted in oncology unit of ORL-HNS at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital Surabaya from May to July 2015. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens from NPC patients with WHO type II and III of histopathology and clinically were divided into four state of cervical enlargement (N0. N1. N2 and N3). The expression of MMP-9 was obtained with immunohistochemistry using rabbit polyclonal antibody Anti-MMP9 ab7299 from abcam^®. Cambridge-UK. Thirty-two NPC patients were enrolled in this study. The study found a negative expression of MMP-9 in 3.12% of samples. Spearman rho test result was p = 0.001 with correlation coefficient of 0.754. Spearman test resulted p value of 0.001 with a correlation coefficient of 0.754. Correlation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression with cervical lymph node metastasis (N0, N1, N2, and N3) in patients with NPC showed a significant result (p < 0.05). There was a strong positive correlation between MMP-9 expressions with cervical lymph node status in NPC patients.