The relevance of plasminogen activators to neoplastic growth. A review of recent literature

Abstract

The topics reviewed in this article include transcriptional regulation of plasminogen activators, their relevance to differentiation, tumor progression, and to the metastatic spread of cancer. Recent information on the nature of cellular plasminogen activator receptors is also discussed. Particular attention is paid to the increasing number of observations indicating that several of the inducers of plasminogen activator synthesis utilize distinct regulatory pathways.