Abstract
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent human malignancy and at the same time the most frequent periocular malignancy, representing almost 80% of all non-melanoma skin cancers and 90% of eyelid cancers. The study included 50 cases of eyelid BCC, out of which 41 were nodular BCC (NBCC) and nine were infiltrative BCC (IBCC), with various Breslow scores (BS) and primary tumor (pT) category. We analyzed the immunoexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 1 and 13 in the tumoral epithelial component (TEC) and inflammatory stromal component (ISC) of BCC in relation to the two histopathological parameters. The immunoreaction for MMP-1 was identified in 41 (82%) cases and for MMP-13 in 46 (92%) cases both in the TEC and ISC of both types of BCC. The statistical analysis revealed that both collagenases had positive/high scores significantly associated with advanced BS. For MMP-1, there were statistical associations in TEC related to IBCC and high pT category, while MMP-13 only revealed statistical association in ISC with high pT. The presence of collagenase MMP-1 and MMP-13 expression in a high number of cases, both in TEC and ISC, confirms their intervention in the tumor progression and proposes these MMPs as potential targets in antineoplastic therapy.