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).
Our pilot study demonstrates that MMP2, MMP14, MMP9, and MaxND might be used as prognostic markers in patients with sinonasal and oral malignant melanoma.
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.
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.