ABSTRACT
In the present work clinical and surgical study together with study of the activity levels of urokinase tissue plasminogen activator in cytosols of 28 breast cancer patients together with 15 patients with non malignant breast lesions and 10 healthy breast tissues was done. The study revealed significantly enhanced activity of urokinase tissue plasminogen activator in malignant cytosols compared with both non malignant and healthy cytosols. However, the levels in non malignant, breast cytosols were significantly higher than normal cytosols, but in these cases the activity levels did not reach the levels observed in malignant tissues. Patients with advanced stages had higher levels compared with early stages of breast cancer. The activity levels were insignificantly higher in premenopausal compared with postmenopausal breast cancer cytosols. Despite the higher levels in estrogen receptor positive cases compared with estrogen receptor negative cytosols, the levels did not reach the level of significance. Patients with metastatic disease had significantly higher levels than patients with non-metastatic breast cancer. Nevertheless, patients with good prognosis have lower levels than patients with bad prognosis. Significant positive correlation existed between urokinase tissue plasminogen activator and number of lymph nodes with metastatic deposits [r = 0.8, p <0.001]. The present findings clearly indicated the utility of cytosolar urokinase tissue plasminogen activator as a valuably tumor marker in aiding diagnosis, staging and predicting prognosis of patients with breast cancer