Clinical significance of serum soluble urokinase receptor assay in tumor patients

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of soluble urokinase receptor (suPAR) measurement in evaluating clinical status of patients with solid malignant tumor.Methods suPAR levels in serum of 62 normal adults,30 patients with benign tumors and 124 patients with malignant tumors were measured by immunoradiometric assay.The association of suPAR level with tumor invasion,metastasis and its alteration after treatment in patients with malignant tumors were also studied.Results The serum suPAR levels were (2 71±1 12)μg/L in normal adults,(3 71±1 69)μg/L in patients with benign tumors and (5 82±2 27)μg/L in patients with malignant tumors,respectively.The serum suPAR level of two types of tumor patients was increased in comparison with that of normal adults( P 0 01 and P 0 001).And its increasing extent in malignant tumors was much greater than that in benign tumors( P 0 001).The serum suPAR level of patients with malignant tumors was correlated with tumor invasion,metastasis and surgical intervention.Conclusions Our findings suggest that the serum suPAR level was increased in tumor patients,and that it might be used as a new tumor marker in clinic.