Relationship between the levels of VEGF, MMP-9 and chemotherapy effect in patients with advanced breast cancer

LI Li; LIU Delin; WU Yuan; WANG Youqun; SUN Weili

Abstract：Objective To study the relationship between the change of expression levels of vascular endothelial growth factors ( VEGF) and matrix metalloproteinase?9( MMP?9) of advanced breast cancer patients before and after chemotherapy and the chemothera?py response. Methods Sixty?five advanced breast cancer patients in Jiangsu Cancer Hospital from December 1 2009 to December 1 2014 were enrolled in this study. All the patients were infused with two agents? chemotherapy, in which 39 were with platinum?based regimen and 26 received non?platinum?based regimen. Serum samples were collected from the 65 patients respectively before chemother?apy and after 2 cycles? chemotherapy to determine the expression levels of VEGF and MMP?9. The expression levels of VEGF and MMP?9 were compared before and after chemotherapy, between platinum?based regimen and non?platinum?based regimen as well as be?tween different efficacies. Meanwhile the median time to progress(TTP) of different expression of VEGF and MMP?9 were evaluated af?ter chemotherapy. Results The mean value of serum VEGF and MMP?9 were 596?5 pg/ml and 686?5 ng/ml before chemotherapy, higher than 215?0 pg/ml and 500?4 ng/ml after chemotherapy(P<0?05). The expression level of VEGF of 56 patients with clinical benefit before and after chemotherapy was 678?1 pg/ml and 232?0 pg/ml( P<0?05) , while the expression level of MMP?9 was 679?3 ng/ml and 450?6 ng/ml( P<0?05) . Those indexes in 9 patients with disease progression had no differences before and after chemother?apy ( P>0?05) . In 39 patients with platinum?based chemotherapy, the mean value of MMP?9 after chemotherapy were 451?7 ng/ml, lower than 742?6 ng/ml before chemotherapy( P<0?05) . The median TTP of 30 patients with decreased level of MMP?9( 5?0 months) was superior to the 25 patients with increased level of MMP?9( 3?0 months) with significant difference ( P<0?05);whereas there was no significant difference between patients with the decreased and increased level of VEGF( P>0?05) . Conclusion The decline of ser?um VEGF and MMP?9 expression levels may be a index of effective chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer.