Peritoneal expression of matrilysin helps identify early post-operative recurrence of colorectal cancer

Abstract

// Giuseppe S. Sica 1, 2 , Cristina Fiorani 1 , Carmine Stolfi 1 , Giovanni Monteleone 1 , Eleonora Candi 1 , Ivano Amelio 3 , Valeria Catani 1 , Simone Sibio 1 , Andrea Divizia 1 , Giorgia Tema 1 , Edoardo Iaculli 1 , Achille L. Gaspari 1 1 Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy 2 European Society Degenerative Disease (ESDD). www.esdd.it 3 Medical Research Council, Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK Correspondence to: Giuseppe S. Sica, e-mail: sigisica@gmail.com Received: November 12, 2014      Accepted: November 27, 2014      Published: January 21, 2015 ABSTRACT Recurrence of colorectal cancer (CRC) following a potentially curative resection is a challenging clinical problem. Matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7) is over-expressed by CRC cells and supposed to play a major role in CRC cell diffusion and metastasis. MMP-7 RNA expression was assessed by real-time PCR using specific primers in peritoneal washing fluid obtained during surgical procedure. After surgery, patients underwent a regular follow up for assessing recurrence. transcripts for MMP-7 were detected in 31/57 samples (54%). Patients were followed-up (range 20–48 months) for recurrence prevention. Recurrence was diagnosed in 6 out of 55 patients (11%) and two patients eventually died because of this. Notably, all the six patients who had relapsed were positive for MMP-7. Sensitivity and specificity of the test were 100% and 49% respectively. Data from patients have also been corroborated by computational approaches. Public available coloncarcinoma datasets have been employed to confirm MMP7 clinical impact on the disease. Interestingly, MMP-7 expression appeared correlated to Tgfb-1, and correlation of the two factors represented a poor prognostic factor. This study proposes positivity of MMP-7 in peritoneal cavity as a novel biomarker for predicting disease recurrence in patients with CRC.