ABSTRACT
Purpose To explore the role of expression of MMP-9 and MMP-13 in non-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC) , and to investi-gate their association with the clinicopathologic feactures and prognosis of NSCLC. Methods The expression of MMP-9 and MMP-13 was detected in 88 NSCLC tissues and 18 adjacent normal tissues by immunohistochemistry SP method. Results The expression of MMP-9 and MMP-13 was higher in NSCLC than that in adjacent normal tissues (P<0. 05), which was positively correlated with dif-ferentiation and lymph node metastasis (P<0. 05). The expression of MMP-9 was positively correlated with age (P<0. 05), which was positively correlated with the expression of MMP-13 in NSCLC ( P <0. 05 ) . The survival rates in positive expression group of MMP-9 and MMP-13 were significantly lower than that of the negative expression group by log-rank method comparing survival curves (P<0. 05). Cox model analysis showed that the tumor size, lymph node metastasis and MMP-13 positive expression were closely relat-ed with the prognosis of NSCLC (P<0. 05). Conclusion MMP-9 and MMP-13 both are associated with the metastasis, invasion and prognosis of NSCLC, and MMP-13 may mainly activate MMP-9 to participate the invasion and metastasis of NSCLC.