title: Urokinase-type plasminogen activator: a potent marker of metastatic potential in human cancers.
abstract: Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is a serine protease that is causally involved in cancer progression, especially invasion and metastasis. Multiple studies have shown that breast cancer patients whose primary cancer contains high levels of uPA have a significantly worse outcome than patients with low levels. As a prognostic marker for breast cancer the information supplied by uPA is both independent of traditionally used factors and significant in the important subgroup of axillary-node patients. Paradoxically, high levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), an endogenous inhibitor of uPA, also predict for aggressive disease. Recently, the prognostic impact of both uPA and PAI-1 in axillary node-negative breast cancer was confirmed using two different Level 1 Evidence studies, i.e. in both a randomized prospective trial and a pooled analysis. Therefore, uPA and PAI-1 appear to have fulfilled all the criteria for the routine assessment of prognosis in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin 4, Ireland. michael.j.duffy@ucd.ie
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Duffy
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology; D017395:Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1 / Q000378:metabolism; D011379:Prognosis; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017395:Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator