To investigate whether the course of primary melanoma disease correlates with expression of the various components of the proteolytic plasminogen activation (PA) system, immunohistochemical stainings for activators of plasminogen (tissue type (tPA) and urokinase type (uPA)), inhibitors of plasminogen activation (type 1 (PAI-1) and type 2 (PAI-2)) and the receptor for uPA (uPAR) were performed on 214 routinely processed melanoma lesions. This evidence concerns the gene PLAT and melanoma.