Abstract:

Objective    To explore the difference between expressions of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and microvessel density (MVD) in cancer tissue and adjacent normal tissue of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) and to study their correlation with invasion and metastasis of HSCC. Methods    Expressions of uPA and MVD of 60 patients with HSCC and 20 cases of paraneoplastic tissues were detected with SP immunohistochemical staining. Results    The positive expression rate of uPA in patients with HSCC was 78.33%, which was significantly higher than that in paraneoplastic tissues(P<0.001).  uPA positive expression was closely correlated with clinical stage, pathological differentiation and lymph node metastases of hypopharyngeal carcinoma (P<0.05).  The MVD number was also correlated with clinical stage, pathological differentiation and lymph node metastases of hypopharyngeal carcinoma (P<0.05 or 0.01). Neither was significantly correlated with patient age and primary anatomic area of HSCC. Expression of uPA had a positive correlation with MVD(r=0.561，P<0.01) in patients with HSCC.The cervical lymph node metastatic rate in patients with uPA positive-expression and high MVD value was 90.91% (20/22), which was significantly higher than that in patients with uPA positive-expression but low MVD value (52.00%), and that in patients with uPA negativeexpression and low MVD value (30.77%) (χ2=9.538，P<0.05). Conclusion    Active angiogenesis and uPA positiveexpression are closely correlated with invasion and metastasis of HSCC. HSCC with uPA positive-expression and high MVD value are susceptible to invasion and cervical lymphatic metastasis. Therefore, uPA and the MVD number may be used as effective indices to evaluate the possibility of invasion and metastasis of HSCC．

Key words: Hypopharyngeal neoplasm； Squamous cell carcinoma； Immunohistochemistry； Urokinasetype plasminogen activator； Microvessel density； Invasion； Metastasis