We genotyped ten common functional polymorphisms of MMP/TIMP genes in 4427 individuals aged 35-69 years without a history of GC who were enrolled in the Japan Multi-institutional Collaborative Cohort Study.
Stromal IGFBP3 (p=0.039), CXCL8 (p=0.008), TIMP1 (p<0.001), CCL4 (p=0.003) and SPP1 (p=0.048) expression was associated with intestinal type gastric cancer.
STAT3, MMP-1 and TIMP-1 were significantly associated with the differentiation of GC cells and lymph node metastasis, but not related to age, gender and tumor size.
The correlation between the increased TIMP-1 expression and cancer stage noted in this study reflects a role of TIMP-1 in predicting the aggressive behavior of gastric cancer.