Abstract
TIMP-1 (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1) regulates not only extracellular matrix catabolism but the major effect in tumor tissue is promotion of cell growth and anti-apoptotic activity. The aim of our study was to evaluate TIMP-1 plasma levels and tissue TIMP-1 mRNA expression as a prognostic marker in NSCLC patients.
Methods: We studied a group of 108 patients with NSCLC who had undergone lung surgery. Quantitative estimation analysis of TIMP-1 mRNA was performed using RT real-time PCR.
Quantitative estimation of plasma TIMP-1 protein was performed using ELISA. Results: There was shorter disease free interval (DFI) in NSCLC patients at stage II with a higher expression of TIMP-1 mRNA in tumor tissue (p{0.0001).
We found there to be a statisticaly significant relation between TIMP-1 mRNA tumor tissue expression and DFI in SCC (p{0.0001). We also found shorter overall survival (OS) in patients at stages IIIa + IIIb + IV with a higher expression of TIMP-1 mRNA (p=0.0389).
We found statistically significant differences in TIMP-1 plasma levels between SCC and adenocarcinoma NSCLC patients (p=0.0491). We did not record any relationship between TIMP-1 plasma levels and prognosis (DFI, OS) in any studied group.
Conclusion: We found there to be a relationship between TIMP-1 mRNA expression in NSCLC tumor tissue and prognosis. Higher tissue level of TIMP-1 is related to an adverse prognosis of patients.
However, our results did not show the relation of TIMP-1 protein in blood plasma of patients with NSCLC to prognosis.