High MMP14 expression is predictive of poor prognosis in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Matrix metalloproteinase 14 (MMP14) has been found to play multiple biological roles in cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Up to now, its expression, clinicopathological and prognostic implications in HCC have not been comprehensively investigated. In the present study, MMP14 expression was detected, using tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical staining, in paired HCC and adjacent liver (AL) samples from 260 patients who underwent radical hepatectomy. The associations of MMP14 staining H-scores with clinicopathological parameters, overall and disease-free survival were then evaluated. Finally, its expression and prognostic value were confirmed in some online publicly available databases. It was shown that MMP14 expression was significantly higher in HCC than in AL tissues (p=0.035). Furthermore, MMP14 expression correlated positively with tumour size, Edmondson-Steiner grade and alpha-fetoprotein level (p<0.05). For survival, MMP14 expression was negatively associated with both overall and disease-free survival in univariate analyses (p<0.05), while it remained statistically significant for disease-free survival by multivariate Cox regression test. In the Ualcan and Kaplan-Meier Plotter databases, MMP14 was also revealed to be overexpressed and prognostic. Taken together, our study indicated that high MMP14 expression was predictive for unfavourable biological behaviours and long-term prognosis in resectable HCC.