The expressions of uPA and PAI-1 in patients with breast cancer and their clinical significance / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the expressions of uPA (urokinase-type plasminogen activator) and PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) in human breast cancer tissues and their clinical significance. Methods: The expressions of uPA and PAI-1 in breast cancer tissue samples from 252 patients with breast cancer were detected by immunohistochemistry. The associations between the expressions of uPA and PAI-1 with the clinicopathological factors were evaluated by using Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test. The correlation of uPA expression and PAI-1 expression was examined by using Spearman's rank correlation test. The survival analysis was conducted to assess the impacts of uPA and PAI-1 expressions on the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Results: The expressions of uPA and PAI-1 were related to nuclear grade, tumor size, axillary lymph node status and Ki67 expression (P < 0.05), and the expression of uPA was also related to HER-2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) expression (P < 0.05). In breast cancer tissues, the expressions of uPA and PAI-1 showed a positive relationship (rs = 0.773, P = 0.000). In subgroups of patients with lymph node-negative and lymph node-positive breast cancer, a positive relationship (rs = 0.760, P = 0.000; rs = 0.780, P = 0.000) was also seen between uPA and PAI-1 expressions. The tumor size (P = 0.023), nuclear grade (P = 0.008), axillary lymph node status (P = 0.000) and the expressions of HER-2 (P = 0.033), uPA (P = 0.005) and PAI-1 (P = 0.023) were associated with DFS (disease-free survival). Of these factors, axillary lymph node status was an independent prognostic factor for patients with breast cancer. The result of subgroup analysis revealed that the expressions of uPA and PAI-1 could influence the DFS of patients with lymph node-negative breast cancer (P = 0.000; P = 0.045). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that uPA and PAI-1 may be used as prognostic markers and also be helpful to make treatment decisions, especially for patients with lymph node-negative breast cancer. Copyright © 2013 by TUMOR.