The plasminogen-activation system in ovarian tumors

✍ Scribed by E. Pujade-Lauraine; H. Lu; S. Mirshahi; J. Soria; C. Soria; A. Bernadou; E. K. O. Kruithof; H. R. Lijnen; P. Burtin

• Book ID: 102868894
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 532 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910550106

✦ Synopsis

We studied the plasminogen activation system in tumor tissue by measuring the antigen level of the 2 plasminogen activators, tissue-type (t-PA) and urokinase-type (U-PA) and their inhibitors, plasminogen-activator inhibitors type-I (PAL I) and type-2 (PAI-2) in the tissue extracts of 43 human benign and malignant ovarian tumors. U-PA levels were significantly higher in malignant than in benign tumors. In addition, U-PA antigen levels were higher in the metastatic tissue of advanced disease (FIGO stage 111) than in the primary localized tumor (FIGO stage 1/11).

Also PAI-I concentrations tended to be higher in malignant than in benign tumors, but this difference was not statistically significant. In contrast, t-PA levels were lower in metastatic than in non-metastatic tumors, whereas PAL2 levels were unrelated to the stage of ovarian malignancy. These results were integrated in a plasminogen-activation-dependent malignancy index (U-PA X PAI-I /&PA). This index distinguished the different groups of benign ovarian tumors, localized and metastatic ovarian carcinomas better than U-PA levels. It could be useful as a prognostic indicator in ovarian cancer.