Prognostic Role of Matrix Metalloproteinases 2, 7, 8, 9 and Their Type 1 Tissue Inhibitor in Blood Serum of Patients with Kidney Cancer

The study compared the levels of MMP-2,7,8,9, and TIMP-1 in blood serum of healthy people (N=97) and patients with primary renal cell carcinoma (N=93) to assess relevance of these markers to prognosis of overall survival of these patients, which were followed-up over 1 to 45 months (median 26 months). To evaluate the survival with the Kaplan-Meier estimator, the median values of examined markers in the total group of patients were taken as the threshold levels. This estimator showed that the high levels of serum MMP-7 and MMP-8 were indicative for unfavorable prognosis in the total group of patients with renal cell cancer. Of them, the most significant marker was the level of MMP-7: at its low level (