Prognostic Role of Matrix Metalloproteinases 2, 7, 8, 9 and Their Type 1 Tissue Inhibitor in Blood Serum of Patients with Kidney Cancer

The study compared the levels of MMP-2,7,8,9, and TIMP-1 in blood serum of healthy people ( N =97) and patients with primary renal cell carcinoma ( N =93) to assess relevance of these markers to prognosis of overall survival of these patients, which were followed-up over 1 to 45 months (median 26 months). To evaluate the survival with the Kaplan—Meier estimator, the median values of examined markers in the total group of patients were taken as the threshold levels. This estimator showed that the high levels of serum MMP-7 and MMP-8 were indicative for unfavorable prognosis in the total group of patients with r enal cell cancer. Of them, the most significant marker was the level of MMP-7: at its low level (