OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor (uPAR) in squamous cell carcinoma of hypopharynx and reveal the correlation of the major clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. METHOD: Samples of 48 hypopharyngeal carcinoma and 10 normal hypopharyngeal tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry method (SP method) for urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor (uPAR). The correlation between the expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator and its receptor and the major clinicopathological parameters of hypopharyngeal carcinoma were analyzed by rank sum test and Spearman correlation analysis. Overall survival were analyzed according to Kaplan-Meier and log-rank statistics, the prognostic relevance of uPA and uPAR and conventional prognostic factors were analyzed by Cox analysis. RESULT: In 48 hypopharyngeal carcinoma specimens, positive expression rates of uPA and uPAR were 77.1% and 68.75% respectively, which were significantly higher than in normal tissues (P < 0.01). The uPA and uPAR positive expression was correlated with pathological grading, lymph node metastases and growth mode of hypopharyngeal carcinoma. The positive expression rate for uPA and uPAR in patients with lower pathological grading, lymph node metastases and invasion growth mode were significantly higher than in patients with higher pathological grading, non-lymph node metastases and non-invasion growth mode. Patients were followed-up postoperatively. The positive expression of uPA and uPAR were correlated with prognosis (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01). According to Log-rank statistics, patients with positive expression of uPA and uPAR had a significantly shorter survival time than those with negative expression of uPA and uPAR. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that three independent prognostic factors for overall survival time were clinical stage, invasion growth mode and uPAR expression. CONCLUSION The positive expression of uPA and uPAR in hypopharyngeal carcinoma were significantly higher than in normal tissues. uPAR is a new independent and strong biologically prognostic factors, which positive expression may be a powerful aid in evaluating metastatic potential and High-Risk patients in early stage of hypopharynx carcinoma ryngeal carcinoma.
Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator ; metabolism ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator ; metabolism