Clinical significance and expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor, matrix metalloproteinase-9 and cyclooxygenase-2 in human thyroid carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between the expression of vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP- 9), cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and histological clinical stage, lymph node metastasis in thyroid carcinoma. METHODS: The SP immunohistochemistry method was employed to determine the expressions of VEGF, MMP-9 and COX-2 in 100 thyroid carcinoma and 20 para-tumorous tissues. The relationship was observed with its clinical pathology and prognosis. RESULTS: The expressions of VEGF, MMP-9 and COX-2 in thyroid carcinoma with the positive frequency of 70% (70/100), 68% (68/100) and 63% (63/100) successively were significantly higher than those in para-tumorous tissues (P<0.01), which was correlated with the clinical stage and lymph node metastasis (P<0.01). The expressions of VEGF and COX-2 were associated with the histological feature of thyroid carcinoma (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The expressions of VEGF, MMP-9 and COX-2 are associated with the clinical stage and metastasis of thyroid carcinoma, which may serve as prognosis indexes of thyroid carcinoma.