Serum levels of MMP-7 in primary brain cancers and brain metastases

The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of MMP-7 serum levels as biomarkers for brain tumours. This study included 50 patients with meningiomas, other benign tumours, high-grade gliomas, brain metastases and other non-tumour diseases and 41 control individuals. The MMP-7 serum levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We significantly found higher serum levels of MMP-7 in patients with benign brain tumours (2.33 +/- 0.37 [SEM] ng/mL, p = 0.006) and brain metastases (2.54 +/- 0.33 ng/mL, p = 0.0001) compared to controls (1.48 +/- 0.09 ng/mL). Glioblastoma (GBM) patients had serum MMP-7 levels comparable to those of the controls (1.44 +/- 0.13 ng/mL, p = 0.901) but significantly lower than those of the patients with benign tumours (p = 0.018) and brain metastases (p = 0.001). In patients with benign tumours, there was a positive correlation with borderline significance between serum MMP-7 levels and leukocyte counts (rho = 0.538, p = 0.058). No difference was found (p = 0.448, paired-samples t-test) when comparing the MMP-7 levels in the serum samples obtained at admission and 4-7 days after surgery of some of the patients (n = 7). According to our results, the MMP-7 serum levels might be a useful serum biomarker for benign brain tumours and for brain metastases but not for glioblastoma.