Objective: To explore the correlation between neck lymph node metastasis and matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression at the invasive tumor front of oral squamous cell carcinomas(OSCC).
Methods: Immunohistochemistry LsAB technique was used to observe the expression of MMP-2 at the invasive tumor front and center of OSCC, and the correlation between the expression of MMP-2 in OSCC and neck lymph node metastasis were respectively analyzed by statistics.
Results: The results demonstrated that MMP-2 existed in all 71 cases, which the expression of MMP-2 at the OSCC front was more significant than that of MMP-2 at the OSCC center (P < 0.01), and related to neck lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The expression of MMP-2 at the OSCC front could be considered as an index of judging the present of neck lymph node metastasis of OSCC.