DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i08.055

Pages: 3268-3273

Urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) is a serine protease involved in cancer invasion and metastasis. uPA acts in vivo by binding to a membrane receptor known as uPAR. This study was aim to investigate the evaluation of uPA,uPAR, PAI-1 and BCL3 in Iraqi breast tumors and assessment the association of their expression with clinicopatholgical features. A total 54 or retrospective breast tumor were studied, 47 out of 45 were primary breast carcinoma, the rest 7 cases were benign. The malignant cases were graded according to the modified Bloom and Richardson criteria into three histological grades. uPA, uPAR, & PAI-1 levels were semiquantitated in these cases using immunohistochemistry and tissue microarray technigues. Association between clinicopathological variables and expression of biomarkers was evaluated by using the Fisher’s exact test and Chi-square test as appropriate and a 2-tailed p-value <0.05 was considered statistically. From 47 infiltrative ductal carcinoma 76.6%, 78.7%, 89.3% and 67.6% were strongly positive for uPA, uPAR,PAI-1and Bcl3 respectively. In contrast, uPA was only weakly detected in benign tumors and was not detected in normal epithelia surrounding tumor or in areas of adenosis. uPA levels in both benign and malignant tumors were significantly correlated with those for uPAR, PAI-, and Bcl3. That both uPA and its receptor are mostly present in invasive breast carcinomas.