Study of plasma matrix metalloproteinase-2 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 level during concurrent chemoradiotherapy and clinicopathologic significance in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the changes of the plasma matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 levels and their clinical significances during the course of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients.Methods:From January 2018 to June 2019, 46 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma were treated in the department of oncology, Changsha Central Hospital Affiliated to Nanhua University. All patients were confirmed by pathology. They were divided into early NPC group ( n=32) and invasive NPC group ( n=16) according to the degree of invasion. The early NPC group was treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone, and the invasive NPC group was treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Blood samples were collected at four stages of the treatment, and the concentrations of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results:The longer the treatment time, the lower the concentration of MMP-9 ( P=0.007) in early NPC group; There was no significant difference in MMP-9 level before treatment, after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, after concurrent chemoradiotherapy, at the end of treatment and the first follow-up ( P>0.05) in invasive NPC group. There was no significant difference in the content of MMP-2 between the two groups before and after treatment ( P>0.05). There was no correlation between serum MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels and tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, tumor invasion and response rate ( P>0.05) in invasive NPC patients, while the level of MMP-9 was positively correlated with white blood count (WBC) and neutrophil count ( r=0.85, P=0.004, r=0.82, P=0.003); The ratio of MMP-9/MMP-2 was positively correlated with WBC and neutrophil count ( r=0.86, P=0.003, r=0.83, P=0.001). Conclusions:Synchronous radiotherapy and chemotherapy can reduce the serum MMP-9 level in early stage NPC patients, but it has no effect on the serum MMP-9 level in patients with invasive NPC, which suggests that synchronous radiotherapy and chemotherapy can not prevent the proliferation and distant metastasis of cancer cells in patients with invasive NPC.