Gelatinase activity of matrix metalloproteinases during first-line chemotherapy in lung adenocarcinoma patients: an initial approach.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine if gelatinase activity of plasma matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) can be used as a method to assess chemotherapy response and cancer progression in primary lung adenocarcinoma patients.
METHODS: A group of 28 patients was divided according to risk factor as follows: lung cancer associated with wood smoke exposure (LCW), lung cancer in tobacco smokers (LCT), and patients with no association to a known risk factor (LCN). Plasma gelatinase activity was measured by zymography and radiolabeled gelatin degradation.
RESULTS: The chemotherapy response was better in the LCW group (25%) compared with the LCT (7.1%) patients (P = 0.039). MMP gelatinase activity was increased in all lung cancer subjects. Patients with progression of the disease had a significant increase in gelatinase activity compared with subjects, with a response to treatment (330.3 ± 44.4 and 64.9 ± 8.5 μg of degraded gelatin/mg of incubated plasma protein, respectively, P = 2.972 × 10(-5)). Zymography assay revealed that the increase in gelatinase activity corresponded mainly to MMP-2.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with progression of lung adenocarcinoma, mainly from the LCT group, had an increase in gelatinase activity compared with subjects that responded to chemotherapy. Therefore, plasma gelatinase activity, particularly MMP-2 enzymatic activity, could be used as a way to assess lung adenocarcinoma progression as well as an indicator for the use of MMP-2 inhibitors.