Sequential measurements of serum matrix metalloproteinase 9 to monitor chemotherapy responses in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

摘要

Background: Matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) plays an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis, including lung cancer. However, whether variations in serum MMP-9 levels can serve as a biomarker for monitoring chemotherapy curative effect remains unclear. This study was designed to investigate the association between variations in serum MMP-9 levels?and chemotherapy curative effect in patients with lung cancer. Patients and methods: A total of 82 patients with advanced lung cancer were included. All newly diagnosed patients were treated with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy. Serial measurements of serum MMP-9 levels were performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In?this manner, we chose four time points to examine the association, including before chemotherapy, and 3?weeks after the beginning of the first, second, and fourth cycles of chemotherapy. Results: Compared with the serum level of MMP-9 before progressive disease, patients with progressive disease had elevated serum levels of MMP-9. Compared with the previous time point of collecting specimens, the serum levels of MMP-9 in the patients with a complete response/partial response/stable disease decreased or were maintained stable. The differences of variation in serum MMP-9 levels in patients with different chemotherapy curative effects were all statistically significant after one cycle, two cycles, and four cycles (after one cycle: P <0.001; after two cycles: P <0.001; after four cycles: P =0.01). However, patients with small-cell lung cancer did not exhibit similar test results. Conclusion: The variation in serum MMP-9 levels in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer during chemotherapy was closely related to chemotherapy curative effect and could be useful to monitor chemotherapy curative effect for a small portion of patients.