Clinical significance of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) in invasive cervical cancer of the uterus.

The relationship between the level of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and pelvic lymph node metastasis was investigated in 20 patients with invasive cervical cancer of the uterus. Frozen sections from all surgical specimens were stained immunohistochemically by alkaline phosphatase anti-alkaline phosphatase method to detect uPA in cancer tissue. The concentration of uPA, determined immunologically, and the fibrinolytic activity were also examined in supernatants of homogenates of some cancer tissues. uPA was detected immunohistochemically in cancer cells of all specimens. A significant correlation was found between the extent of immunohistochemical staining for uPA and the concentration of uPA determined immunologically in cancer tissues (P less than 0.05). A positive correlation was also found between semiquantitative values determined by immunohistochemical staining for uPA and lymph node metastasis (P less than 0.05). Fibrinolytic activity in cancer tissues was confirmed by casein-plaque assay. These findings indicate that the pro-uPA/uPA contents in cervical cancer tissues are clinically useful for predicting the metastatic potential of these cancers to the pelvic lymph nodes.