Interestingly, male patients with a melanoma with overexpression of MMP-2 showed a 10-year disease-specific survival of only 41% compared with 77% in other male patients (P = .003).
Because MMP-2 activity is critical for melanoma progression, the MMP-2 peptide should be cross-presented by most progressing melanomas and represents a unique antigen for vaccine therapy of these tumors.
Our pilot study demonstrates that MMP2, MMP14, MMP9, and MaxND might be used as prognostic markers in patients with sinonasal and oral malignant melanoma.
Immunolabeling of melanoma cells with antibodies specific for MMP-2 and MMP-9 led to the identification of two distinct populations of small cytoplasmatic vesicles containing MMP-2 or MMP-9, respectively.