Clinical significance of expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator in patients with prostate cancer.
BACKGROUND
Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) has been reported to overexpress in several types of human cancers and correlate with cancer progression. The present study was performed to evaluate the significance of expression of u-PA on the progression of prostate cancer.


METHODS
Expression of u-PA protein was investigated immunohistochemically on paraffin-embedded section from 61 patients with untreated prostate cancer. The correlation between the u-PA expression and clinical outcome was examined.


RESULTS
u-PA was expressed in the cytoplasm of glandular cells of 56% patients. Higher expression of u-PA protein was positively correlated with bone metastasis (p = 0.011). The cause-specific survival rate was significantly lower in u-PA-positive patients than that in u-PA-negative patients (p = 0.0012). In those with bone metastasis, patients with u-PA expression had worse cause-specific survival than those without u-PA expression (p = 0.030).


CONCLUSIONS
Increased expression of u-PA is a feature of bone metastasis in patients with prostate cancer. u-PA expression is a prognostic factor in patients with prostate cancer.
Ohta
Shoichiro
S
Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2630, Sugitani, Toyama, Japan.
Fuse
Hideki
H
Fujiuchi
Yasuyoshi
Y
Nagakawa
Osamu
O
Furuya
Yuzo
Y
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D001706:Biopsy; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology / Q000556:secondary; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen