This retrospective analysis was designed to confirm the predictive role of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type I (PAI-1) in the outcome of early stage, node-negative breast cancer patients.
Patients and methods: Node-negative patients having not received adjuvant chemotherapy, and for whom frozen samples were available, were selected.
Results: Among the 169 patients included, 56.8% presented with uPA >3 ng/mg of proteins and/or PAI-1 >14 ng/mg of proteins. The median follow-up was 73 months. Significant correlations were found between uPA and disease-free survival (p [univariate]=0.003; p [multivariate]=0.01), and between uPA, PAI-1, and uPA plus PAI-1 and distant relapses (p=0.002). No significant correlation was found between uPA/PAI-1 and the risk of locoregional recurrence.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that uPA and PAI-1 are useful predictors of distant metastases in a subset of early stage, node-negative breast cancer patients.