Prognostic relevance of urokinase type plasminogen activator, its receptor and inhibitors in chondrosarcoma

The plasminogen activation system plays an important role in enhancing pericellular proteolysis of tumor invasion/metastasis and in autocrine/paracrine tumor growth stimulation. To investigate the prognostic significance of the plasminogen activation system in human chondrosarcoma, the immunohistochemical expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), plasminogen activator inhibitor, 1 (PAI-1) and 2 (PAI-2) were analyzed in 28 patients with chondrosarcoma. In multivariate survival analysis, histological grade (p = 0.0008) and location (p = 0.02) were independent risk factors for local relapse. For metastasis-free survival, uPA index (p = 0.006) and PAI-2 index (p = 0.04) were independent prognostic factors. PAI-2 index (p = 0.02), uPAR index (p = 0.02) and histological grade (p = 0.03) predicted total survival. These results demonstrated the usefulness of uPA, uPAR and PAI-2 expression as biological prognostic indicator and the importance of the plasminogen activation system in tumor progression and metastasis in chondrosarcoma.