Combined mRNA expression levels of members of the urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) system correlate with disease-associated survival of soft-tissue sarcoma patients

Table 1 Relationship between clinical and histomorphological parameters, and mRNA levels of tumor biological markers in tumor tissue of STS patients

Patients' characteristics	No. cases	uPA	PAI-1	No. cases^a	uPAR-wt	uPAR-del4/5
		low/high	low/high		low/high	low/high
Total	78			77/76
Sex^b		P = 0.071	P = 0.111		P = 0.031	P = 0.201
Male	35	21/14	20/15	34/33	20/14	18/15
Female	43	18/25	18/25	43	18/25	20/23
Histological subtype^{c, d}		P = 0.135	P = 0.037		P = 0.044	P < 0.001
LS	18	10/8	9/9	18	13/5	15/3
MFH	17	6/11	8/9	16/15	6/10	7/8
FS	3	1/2	0/3	3	1/2	1/2
RMS	6	4/2	3/3	6	3/3	1/5
LMS	17	6/11	6/11	17	6/11	4/13
NS	7	5/2	5/2	7	5/2	5/2
Syn	10	7/3	8/2	10	4/6	5/5
Tumor grade^c		P = 0.149	P = 0.017		P = 0.178	P = 0.003
I	15	7/8	6/9	15	8/7	9/6
II	32	20/12	21/11	32	17/15	19/13
III	31	12/19	12/19	30/29	13/17	10/19
Tumor stage^c		P = 0.431	P = 0.111		P = 0.483	P = 0.031
I	13	6/7	5/8	13	7/6	8/5
II	31	19/12	20/11	31	16/15	18/13
III	25	9/16	10/15	24/23	11/13	9/14
IV	9	5/4	4/5	9	4/5	3/6
Complete resection^b		P = 0.056	P = 0.304		P = 0.437	P = 0.200
Radical (R0)	52	22/30	24/28	52/51	23/29	24/27
Not radical (R1)	26	17/9	15/11	25	15/10	14/11
Tumor localization^c		P = 0.197	P = 0.071		P = 0.098	P = 0.394
Extremities	49	22/27	22/27	48/47	19/29	21/26
Trunk wall	6	4/2	3/3	6	5/1	3/3
Head/neck	2	2/0	2/0	2	2/0	1/1
Abdomen/retroperitoneum	21	11/10	12/9	21	12/9	13/8
Patient follow-up^b		P = 0.405	P = 0.645		P = 0.748	P = 0.688
Alive	36	15/21	18/18	36/35	18/18	18/17
Dead	42	24/18	21/21	41	20/21	20/21

^aThe number of cases for uPAR-wt and uPAR-del4/5 is 77 and 76, respectively.
^b P for Mann-Whitney U test, ^c P for Kruskal-Wallis test.
^dAbbreviations: LS - liposarcoma, MFH - malignant fibrous histiocytoma, FS - fibrosarcoma, RMS - rhabdomyosarcoma, LMS - leiomyosarcoma, NS - neurogenic sarcoma, Syn - synovial sarcoma; the median mRNA values of the uPAR system components in the different histological STS subtypes are presented in Additional file 3.

ISSN: 1471-2407