Macrophage metalloelastase is associated with the prognosis of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a relatively common malignant tumor of the digestive tract, which is affected by many factors. A medical study showed that overexpression of human macrophage metalloelastase (HME) is associated with a worse prognosis of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Peter Balaz of the University of Heidelberg in Germany pointed out that HME is a type of matrix metalloproteinase, which is related to the degradation of elastin, various matrix and non-matrix substrates. This protease has been found in gastric cancer, intestinal cancer, skin cancer, astrocytoma, glioblastoma and liver cancer. It can be seen that this substance is closely related to the occurrence of cancer.

The researchers detected HME expression in 39 cases of pancreatic cancer, 13 normal controls and 16 cases of pancreatitis, and analyzed the relationship with clinical pathological parameters and survival time. The results showed that only very low HMEmRNA expression could be detected in normal tissues, and immunohistochemistry was negative; while HMEmRNA in pancreatic cancer increased by nearly 41 times. Among them, HME immunohistochemistry was moderately positive in 18 pancreatic cancer specimens, 20 stromal cell specimens and 8 pancreatic cancer/stromal cell specimens. HMEmRNA expression in chronic pancreatitis increased by 3 to 16 times, and only 3 normal tissue specimens were positive for HME immunohistochemistry. The average survival time of HMEmRNA-positive patients was 11 months, which was significantly lower than the 22 months of negative patients. Its positive rate was not related to the patient's age, gender, tumor size, stage, lymph node metastasis and grade.

The researchers speculate that HME may stimulate the growth and vascular invasion of pancreatic cancer cells, but will not affect the formation of lymph node metastasis. Dr. Balaz believes that the treatment of pancreatic cancer should include HME inhibition, and the development of selective MMP inhibitors will help improve the success rate of pancreatic cancer treatment.