Diagnostic and prognostic values of plasma levels of fibrinolytic markers in ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to find out whether any of the fibrinolytic parameters could be used as tumor markers in predicting the prognosis of ovarian cancers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the present study, we determined the plasma concentrations of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), PAI-2, and uPA receptor (uPAR) in 25 patients with ovarian cancer, 16 patients with benign gynecologic tumor or inflammation, and 36 healthy controls in order to find out whether the plasma levels of these markers could be used to evaluate the prognostic value in patients with gynecologic cancers. We also determined two tissue concentrations of malignant tumor (one was at the tumor site itself and the other at the cut-end tissue of the tumor, which was expected to be free of tumor) in order to see the correlation between plasma and tissue concentrations.

RESULTS

Plasma PAI-1 was significantly higher in patients with malignancy than in the healthy controls (P = 0.0001). There was no significant correlation between plasma and tissue concentrations, either tumor tissue or cut-end tissue, of the same parameters. Tissue concentrations of uPA, PAI-1, and PAI-2 were significantly higher and tPA significantly lower in the malignant tumor tissue than in the cut-end tissue in the patients with ovarian cancer (P = 0.014, 0.03, 0.002, and 0.01, respectively). Plasma PAI-1 was significantly higher in patients in the late stage of ovarian cancer than in the early stages and in the controls.

CONCLUSION

From our study, we concluded that plasma levels of PAI-1 were correlated with the presence of malignant ovarian cancer and higher stage of disease.