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

Table 2 Univariate Cox regression analysis for the association of relevant clinical and histomorphological parameters, and of uPA, PAI-1, uPAR-wt and uPAR-del4/5 mRNA levels in tumor tissue of STS patients with disease-associated survival

Factor	No. cases^a	RR (95% CI)^b	P
Histological subtype^c
LS	18	1
MFH/ FS	20	2.35 (0.9-6.2)	0.085
RMS/ LMS	23	2.62 (1.0-6.8)	0.050
NS	7	1.57 (0.4-6.3)	0.522
Syn	10	1.29 (0.4-4.4)	0.686
Tumor stage
I	13	1
II	31	2.88 (0.6-12.9)	0.165
III	25	9.27 (2.1-40.6)	0.003
IV	9	33.5 (7.0-161.0)	<0.001
Complete resection
Radical (R0)	52	1
Not radical (R1)	26	2.59 (1.4-4.8)	0.002
Tumor localization
Extremities	49	1
Trunk wall	6	0.88 (0.2-3.8)	0.858
Head/neck	2	3.79 (0.9-16.7)	0.079
Abdomen/retroperitoneum	21	1.93 (1.0-3.8)	0.057
uPA mRNA^d
Low	39	1
High	39	0.73 (0.4-1.4)	0.319
PAI-1 mRNA^d
Low	39	1
High	39	1.18 (0.6-2.2)	0.609
uPAR-wt mRNA^d
Low	39	1
High	38	1.11 (0.6-2.1)	0.736
uPAR-del4/5 mRNA^d
Low	38	1
High	38	1.06 (0.6-2.0)	0.839

^aTotal number of cases: n = 78, the number of cases for uPAR-wt and uPAR-del4/5 is 77 and 76, respectively.
^bRR: hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of univariate Cox regression analysis.
^cAbbreviations: LS - liposarcoma, MFH - malignant fibrous histiocytoma, FS - fibrosarcoma, RMS - rhabdomyosarcoma, LMS - leiomyosarcoma, NS - neurogenic sarcoma, Syn - synovial sarcoma.
^dRelative mRNA expression ratio of the respective marker / HPRT dichotomized in high and low levels by median values.

ISSN: 1471-2407