Vihinen P et al. - In a study to assess whether serum MMP-8 is of prognostic value in malignant melanoma, it seems that high serum MMP-8 level is associated with earlier recognized histopathology markers of melanoma progression. Results also suggest that elevated serum MMP-8 might be related to haematogenous spreading of melanoma through vascular invasion Methods
Serum samples of 117 pts were studied of which 63 were stage I, 13 stage II, 12 stage III and 29 stage IV
Results
Mean serum MMP-8 levels did not significantly correlate with pt or tumour characteristics, that is, patient sex, age, tumour Clark's or Breslow's classification, sentinel lymph node status or to survival
High serum MMP-8 levels were significantly related to presence of vascular invasion in primary tumour, tumour ulceration, and tumour bleeding
Tendency to increased serum MMP-8 levels in pts with coronary heart disease or type II diabetes mellitus was detected
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