title: Clinical significance of expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator in patients with prostate cancer.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2630, Sugitani, Toyama, Japan.
authors.forename: Shoichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fuse
authors.forename: Yasuyoshi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiuchi
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nagakawa
authors.forename: Yuzo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Furuya
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen