The expression of the MT1 MMP mRNA (membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase) was measured by RT PCR method in 45 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and the relationship between MT1 MMP positive rate and 5 year survival rate was investigated in 18 cases.There were 28 males and 17 females,ranging in age from 34 to 78 years old.Of these patients,there were 7 in stage Ⅰ,9 in stage Ⅱ,15 in stage Ⅲ,9 in stage Ⅳ,5 in recurrent group.Results showed that the expression of MT1 MMP mRNA (MT1 MMP/ actin) was higher in tumor tissue (45 cases) (0 4511±0 1052) than that in adjacent tissue of tumor (35 cases) (0 3818±0 0680) (P<0 05).The expression level of MT1 MMPmRNA in tumor tissue on stage Ⅲ (15 cases) (0 4568±0 1185) was than stage Ⅱ (9 cases) (0 3413±0 0904) (P<0 05),and also was significantly higher in group of 20 patients with lymph node metastasis (0 4991±0 1197) than that in group of 20 patients with negative lymph node metastasis (0 3574±0 0741) (P<0 01).The 5 year survival rate in group of 10 patients with high expression level of MT1 MMPmRNA was significantly poorer than that in group of 8 patients with low expression level (40% vs 90%,P<0 01).It seemed closely relates between the expression of MT1 MMPmRNA and metastasis,prognosis of laryngeal carcinoma.
