0 Female 12 25.0 Age     <55 20 41.7 ≥55 28 58.3 Differentiation     Well-differentiation 24 50.0 Moderately 20 41.7 Poorly 4 8.3 JPH203 clinical stage     I 10 20.8 II 2 4.2 III 21 43.7 IV 15 31.3 T-stage     T1 22 45.8 T2 23 47.9 T3 1 2.1 T4 2 4.2 Recurrence     No 33 68.7 Yes 15 31.3 Lymph node involvement     No 11

22.9 Yes 37 77.1 Immunohistochemistry Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples were sectioned at 5-μm thickness and stained with H&E for tumour confirmation. Sections adjacent to the H&E staining were used for immunohistochemical staining. Monoclonal antibodies against MMP-2 (MAB-0244), MMP-9 (MAB-0245), and ColIV (MAB-0025) were all purchased from MaiXin Biological Technology Corporation Ltd. (Fujian, China). The concentrations ABT888 of the primary antibody were 1:20 for MMP-2, 1:30 for MMP-9, and 1:100 for ColIV. The antibody was diluted with an antibody diluent. Immunohistochemical staining was performed by using the universal two-step method [18]. Briefly, the sections were first deparaffinized with xylene and rehydrated in graded ethanol. Endogenous peroxidase activity was blocked by immersion of slides in 3% hydrogen peroxide. Salubrinal nmr 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA) was applied for 15 min for blocking non-specific antigens. The mixtures were then incubated with the respective primary antibodies overnight in a humidified chamber maintained at 4°C. Subsequently,

they were incubated with the corresponding secondary antibody (PV6002, Zhongshan Goldenbridge Biotechnology, Beijing, China) for 30 min at 37°C. The antibody reaction was visualized by using diaminobenzidine (DAB) chromogen (Zhongshan Goldenbridge Biotechnology). Then, all the slides were counterstained with haematoxylin. Sections incubated with immunoglobulins of the same species at the same final concentrations served as negative controls, C-X-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CXCR-7) and placental trophoblastic cells (MMP-2,-9) and bronchial epithelial cells (ColIV) were used as positive controls. Evaluation of immunohistochemical results All samples were reviewed by two independent investigators who were blinded to the clinical outcomes of the patients. Image Pro Plus 6.0 (Media Cybernetics Inc.) was used to

calculate the intensity of the detected molecules. Three microscopic fields in tumour tissues (original magnification 400×) were randomly selected and the integral optical density (iOD) of MMP-2, MMP-9 and ColIV was calculated by image, which was considered as the expression level of positive-staining. Higher iOD values represented higher antigen expression, and vice versa. All iOD values were divided into four quartiles as follows: 0–25%, negative expression; 25–50%, weak expression; 50–75%, moderate expression; and 75–100%, strong expression. For statistical analysis, the patients were classified into two groups: ‘low expression’ included those with negative or weak expression and ‘high expression’ included those with moderate or strong expression.