BIOMARCADOR TUMORAL DEL ESTADO DE AFECTACION DE LOS GANGLIOS LINFATICOS NO CENTINELA

摘要

The present invention relates to matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 as a novel tumour biomarker for predicting whether non-sentinel nodes are affected by tumours, in accordance with the positive sentinel node in cancer cases. In cases with a positive sentinel node, the lack of expression of said factor in a specific cell type predicts that the non-sentinel nodes are not affected by the tumour cells. The specificity and sensitivity of this prognostic/diagnostic test is 61.5% and 100%, respectively. However, the most important aspect is that the invention has a negative predictive value of 100%. This means that in every case with negative expression of MMP-1 by the peritumoural inflammatory mononuclear cells in the positive sentinel node, the other nodes are not affected by tumours. This implies that the present invention can prevent at least 60% of unnecessary full axillary dissections.