Correlation between telomerase activity and matrix metalloproteinases 2 expression in gastric cancer.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between telomerase activity (TA) and matrix metallo proteinases 2 (MMP-2) on malignant behavior and prognosis predictable value in gastric cancer.

Methods: Telomerase activity and MMP-2 protein expressions were tested in 40 gastric surgical resected cancer samples and the clinicopathological data of enrolled patients were obtained to get correlation analysis results.

Results: The expression of telomerase was up-regulated with infiltrating depth, lymph node metastasis and stage (P < 0.01). Positive expression rate of MMP-2 in gastric cancer tissues was 44.35%, negative in normal gastric tissues. Multivariate analysis of Logistic regression showed telomerase activity and MMP-2 expression were hazardous makers correlated with infiltrating depth (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Combined detections of telomerase activity and MMP2 protein could identify patients at high risk in disease recurrence and prognosis more efficiently.