Relationship between preoperative staging by endoscopic ultrasonography and MMP-9 expression in gastric carcinoma.

AIM

To investigate the relationship between the staging by endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and the expression of carcinoma metastasis associated gene in the patients with gastric carcinoma.

METHODS

Sixty-three patients with gastric cancer were diagnosed by electric gastroscopy and EUS. The preoperative staging of gastric cancer was measured by EUS and compared with pathologic staging and MMP-9 expression. Peripheral serum level of MMP-9 was measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), while the expression of MMP-9 protein was tested with immunohistochemistry and hybridization in situ in the gastric carcinoma tissues.

RESULTS

The total accuracy of EUS in estimating invasive depth of gastric cancer was 80.95%, while that in estimating lymphatic metastasis was 73.02%. Serum MMP-9 levels were consistent with the expression of MMP-9 protein and MMP-9 mRNA in tissue, a result closely correlated with invasive degree, staging with EUS and lymphatic metastasis in gastric cancer (P<0.05). The total accuracy of estimating invasive depth in gastric cancer was 95.22% using both EUS and MMP-9.

CONCLUSION

The MMP-9 level of preoperative serum presents the reference value for preoperative staging by EUS in the patients with gastric cancer. When serum MMP-9 level in gastric cancer is significantly high, physicians should pay closer attention to the metastasis which reaches the serosa or beyond. Combining EUS and MMP-9 improves the accuracy in deciding the invasion and metastasis in the patients with gastric carcinoma.