comparison of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 levels in saliva and serum of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and healthy subjects

Background: head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (hnscc) is the sixth common cancer worldwide. a hallmark of cancer pro- gression is degradation of the extracellular matrix by matrix metalloproteinases (mmps) that allows cancer cells to invade the sur- rounding tissue. objectives: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of mmp-2 and 9 in serum and salivary of hnscc patients and compare it with a healthy group. methods: twenty patients with newly diagnosed hnscc, who had not received any treatment, referred to omid and ghaem hospi- tals, mashhad, iran, and twenty healthy controls were voluntarily included in this study. salivary and blood samples were collected from both groups and the concentration of mmp-2 and mmp-9 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). statistical analysis was performed by spss using student t-test or mann-whitney with significance level of ≤ 0.05. results: in cancer patients, the serum level of mmp-9 was significantly higher than that of in the healthy group (p < 0.001). however, salivary mmp-9 was higher in cancer patients, this difference was not significant (p = 0.736). there was no significant difference between the study groups for the levels of serum (p = 0.283) and salivary mmp-2 (p = 0.764). there was a correlation between salivary and serum levels of both markers in cancer patients (p = 0.046 and p = 0.011 for mmp-2 and mmp-9, respectively), on the contrary, there was not a correlation between them in the healthy controls (p = 0.628 and p = 0.064, for mmp-2 and mmp-9, respectively). a direct correlation between the salivary level of mmp-9 and tumor grade was also detected (p = 0.045). conclusions: the salivary analysis indicates that an altered composition for mmps in hnscc, suggesting a potential diagnostic tool for oral cancer. the serum level of mmp-9 appears to be a reliable marker for early diagnosis in hnscc patients.