The prognostic values of matrix metalloproteinases in ovarian cancer

Objective: To investigate the prognostic significance of 23 matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) genes in patients diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma. Methods: The prognostic significance of 23 MMP genes in patients diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma was investigated using the Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM plotter), which uses the gene expression data and overall survival information of patients with ovarian cancer that were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus, Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid and The Cancer Genome Atlas cancer datasets. The correlation between mRNA levels of individual MMPs (MMP2, MMP9, MMP10, MMP12, MMP13 and MMP25) and clinicopathological features (histological subtype, pathological grade and clinical stage) were investigated. The MMP protein level profiles in normal ovarian tissues and ovarian cancer tissues were examined using the Human Protein Atlas database. Results: The results showed that high mRNA levels of MMP2 and MMP13 were associated with a worse overall survival in patients with ovarian cancer, whereas high mRNA levels of MMP9, MMP10, MMP12 and MMP25 were associated with a better overall survival. The protein levels of MMP2, MMP9, MMP10 and MMP25 in ovarian cancer tissues were elevated compared with normal ovarian tissues. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that MMPs can be a reliable prognostic biomarker for ovarian cancer.