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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

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Published on: May 10, 2024
Polymorphisms in the genes of the urokinase plasminogen activation system in relation to colorectal cancer
1Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. a.foersti@dkfz.de
Background:
Extracellular matrix degradation, mediated by the urokinase plasminogen activation (uPA) system, is a critical step in tumor invasion and metastasis. High tumor levels of uPA and its inhibitor PAI-1 have been correlated with poor cancer prognosis. We examined four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with a potential effect on expression of genes in the uPA system for their role in colorectal cancer susceptibility and prognosis.
Patients And Methods:
We genotyped the SNPs in 308 Swedish incident colorectal cancer patients with up to 16 years of follow-up and in 585 age- and sex-matched controls. We evaluated the associations between genotypes and colorectal cancer and Dukes' stage. Survival probabilities were compared between different subgroups.
Results:
Patients with PAI-1 -675 5G/5G genotype had better survival than patients with 4G/4G or 4G/5G genotypes when they had Dukes' stage A or B tumors (P = 0.023 and P = 0.015, respectively). No statistically significant association was observed between the SNPs and the risk of colorectal cancer or Dukes' stage.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest a role for the PAI-1 genotype in colorectal cancer prognosis, but further studies are needed to evaluate the impact of our finding in the clinic.
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