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Published on: February 12, 2017
The urokinase-type plasminogen activator system in resected non-small-cell lung cancer. Rotterdam Oncology Thoracic
M Salden1, T A Splinter, H A Peters
1Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Background:
Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), its receptor (uPAR) and plasminogen activator inhibitors (PAI-1 and PAI-2), all play important roles in tumour invasion and metastasis. The tumour levels of the components of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator system (uPA-system) may help to identify individuals with a poor prognosis in postoperative non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.
Patients And Methods:
The levels of uPA, uPAR PAI-1 and PAI-2 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in triton-extracts, prepared from 88 NSCLC tissues (stage I-IIIa) and 74 normal lung tissues from the same patients.
Results:
The expression levels of uPA, uPAR, PAI-1 and PAI-2 were significantly higher in tumour tissues as compared to their normal equivalents (all, P < 0.0001). Significant relations were found between gender and uPA (P = 0.04) or uPAR (P < 0.001), and between PAI-2 and pathological stage (P = 0.03). For none of the studied factors of the uPA-system a significant relation with survival was found, neither in all patients, nor in the subgroups of patients with squamous-cell lung carcinoma or adenocarcinoma.
Conclusions:
The expression levels of the components of the uPA-system were higher in NSCLC tissue as compared to normal lung tissue, but there were no significant relationships between their levels and survival.
