Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression levels of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and the correlations with NPC invasion and metastasis.Methods The expression levels of bFGF and MMP-2 in serum were determined from 63 patients with NPC,before and after radiotherapy,by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent.The control serums were from 20 healthy check-up people.Results The expression levels of bFGF and MMP-2 before radiotherapy were (5.16±2.28)ng/ml and (164.08±64.61)ng/ml respectively,which were higher than that in healthy control (2.10±0.31) ng/ml and (85.79±6.74) ng/ml respectively,P<0.01),and were also higher than that in the serum from the same patients after radiotherapy (2.51±1.27) ng/ml and (97.42±48.68) ng/ml respectively,P<0.01).The expression levels of bFGF and MMP-2 in NPC patients' serum after radiotherapy were higher than that in the healthy control serum,while there were out of statistic meaning (P>0.05).The expression levels of bFGF and MMP-2 in NPC patients' serum were related to clinical stage,lymphatic metastasis and distant metastasis (P<0.05).The expression levels of bFGF and MMP-2 in NPC patients' serum showed positive relationship with each other (r=0.8748,P<0.01).Conclusion Expression levels of bFGF and MMP-2 might reflect the development,invasion and metastasis of NPC.Combining detection of bFGF and MMP-2 could be applied as important indicators for evaluating the prognosis of NPC.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasm, Basic fibroblast growth factor, Matrix metalloproteinase-2, Invasion and metastasis