Increased co-expression of macrophage migration in-hibitory factor and matrix metalloproteinase 9 is as-sociated with tumor recurrence of meningioma

Background and Objective: We detected the expression of MIF and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) in meningiomas to determine whether they are valuable recurrence predictor for meningioma. Methods: 67 cases of meningiomas, including 57 benign tumors (WHO grade I) and 10 non-benign tumors (WHO grade II and III), were collected, and expression of MIF and MMP9 in tissue mi-croarray was evaluated immunohistochemically. The correlations between immunostainings and clinicopathological parameters, as well as the follow-up data of patients, were analyzed statistically. Results: Increased expressions of both MIF (58.2%, 39/67) and MMP9 (55.2%, 37/67) were significantly associated with microvessel density (MVD) of tumor, but only dual high-expression of MIF and MMP9 was in relation to tumor invasion (P=0.016) and tumor recurrence (P=0.001). Based on univariate analysis, histological grade, tumor invasion and co-expression of MIF and MMP9 were significant predictors for recurrence. However, only histological grade and co-expression of MIF and MMP9 in tumor were independent recurrence factors with a hazard ratio of 49.033 (P=0.002) and 37.766 (P=0.002) in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Together with histological grade, increased co-expression of MIF and MMP9 in tumor might be a valuable predictor for recurrence, especially for benign meningiomas.