Background: Breast carcinoma is one of the most common tumors in female patients, and its metastasis is a major cause of death. An experimental model has recently found the association of CD44 with MMP-9 that facilitates tumor cell invasion and metastasis.
Material and Method: The CD44v4 and MMP-9 were performed on tissue in paraffin blocks of 50 cases of high-grade breast carcinoma with node positive and 50 cases with node negative.
Results: Increased expression of MMP-9(60%) significantly observed in high-grade breast carcinoma patients with node positive (p = 0.004), whereas CD44v4 displays no significant difference between the two groups (p-value = 0.81). Significant co-expression of CD44v4+/MMP-9+ (46%) was observed and correlated with node-positive patients whereas the CD44v4+/MMP-9- (54%) express in node-negative patient (p-value = 0.01).
Conclusion: The solely expression of CD44v4 does not associate with node status. MMP-9 plays an important role to enhance breast carcinoma cell invasion and associates with lymph node metastasis. The combined expression of CD44v4 (overexpression) and derangement of MMP-9 expression was significantly associated with nodal status.

Keywords: Breast carcinoma, CD44v4, MMP-9, Lymph node status