Urokinase and Tissue Plasminogen Activators and Their PAI-1 Inhibitor in Tumors of Patients with Oral Mucosal Cancer: Relationship with the Main Clinical Morphological Factors

Enhanced activation of plasminogen by the urokinase pathway (uPA elevation) in patients with cancer of the oral mucosa paralleled by an increase of PAI-1 level in the tumor compared to the adjacent mucosa was shown by enzyme immunoassay. No statistically significant associations of the level of the studied proteins in the tumor with such prognostic factors as location, growth form, histological structure, differentiation degree, size, and dissemination of the primary tumor, involvement of the regional lymph nodes, and stage of the disease were detected.