title: Combined evaluation of urokinase-type plasminogen activator and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 expression in gastric carcinoma.
abstract: Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (UPA) is a serine protease implicated in cancer invasion and metastasis. There are at least two kinds of specific inhibitor which act on UPA: plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2). It has been reported that both UPA and PAI-1 antigen levels are associated with short survival in patients with breast cancer. In this study, we investigated the correlation between the expression of UPA, PAI-2 and prognosis in gastric carcinoma. One hundred and twenty specimens resected from patients with gastric carcinoma were investigated by staining with monoclonal antibodies against UPA and PAI-2. UPA positive rate was significantly higher in patients with liver metastases than in those without such metastases, There was no significant association between PAI-2 expression and clinicopathologic factors. However, patients with UPA-positive and PAI-2-negative tumors had more advanced cancer than other patients. According to the prognosis, the patients with UPA-positive and PAI-2-negative tumors had a significantly poorer prognosis than other patients. In conclusion, the combined evaluation of UPA and PAI-2 expression is associated with tumor progression in gastric cancer.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sawada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Onoda
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sowa