Poor prognosis associated with cyclooxygenase-2 and matrix metalloproteinase 7（MMP-7）expression in aged patients with gastric carcinoma

Objective: To investigate the expression of cyclooxygenase-2（COX-2） and MMP-7and their influence on clinicopathological characteristics and the prognosis in aged pctients with gastric carcinoma. Methods: Expression of COX-2 and MMP-7 were examined with immnunohistochemical technique in 87 cases gastric carcinoma specimens. Results: Expression of COX-2 and MMP-7 were significantly higher in gastric carcinoma than that in chronic atrophic gastritis.Cox and MMP-7 levels in advanced carcinoma were higher compared with early carcinoma（P＜0.01）.A significant correlation was found between COX-2 and MMP-7.The expression of COX-2 and MMP-7 were related to the tumour size,depth,lymph node metastasis,vessel invasion and TNM stage. The survival rate in the patients with Cox-2 or MMP-7 expression was much lower than the rate in those patients without expression of COX-2 and MMP-7.The prognosis of patients with both COX-2 and MMP-7 expression was extremely poor.By multivariate analysis,it demonstrated that MMP-7 expression was an independent prognostic factor after lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. Conclusion: Overexpression of Cox-2 and MMP-7 in gastric carcinoma enhance the possibility of invasion and metastasis and implicate a poor prognosis.