Role of cyclooxygenase-2 in clinicopathologic features of breast cancer

Erfan Mohammadi vajari,1,* Mohammad-ali mohammadi-vajari,2 Esmaeil samizadeh,3 Mohammad hossein lashkari,4

1. medical student, school of medicine, guilan university of medical sciences, guilan, iran.
2. MD, student's scientific research center, tehran university of medical sciences
3. Pathologist, Pathology department of Imam reza hospital, AJA university of medical sciences
4. Associate professor of Surgery, Medical Faculty, AJA University of Medical sciences

Abstract


Introduction

Breast cancer is the most common disease of women around the world. on the other hand, genetic difference among patients with breast cancer is a leading cause of treatment failure in patients with breast cancer. several studies have shown that overexpression of cox-2 is effective in various gynecological cancers such as breast, cervical, endometrial and ovarian epithelial cancers. with regard to the role of cox-2 in tumorogenesis in different types of cancer, especially breast cancer, and according to the availability of drugs that inhibit cox-2, in this study the gene expression of cox-2 in patients with breast cancer and the relationship between expression of this gene and some clinicopathologic parameters were studied.

Methods

65 malignant tissue samples were chosen for immunohistochemistry test. other information about clinicopathologic features were collected from pathology reports and patients medical records. ihc on the selected paraffin blocks was performed and the collected data were analyzed using spss software version 23 and chi-square test. p value of <0.05 was considered as significant.

Results

Cox-2 expression rate in malignant breast tissue was 55.4% of the cases (36 samples out of 65). cox-2 expression had significant correlation with involvement of the lymph node sent by the sample, vascular or peri-neural invasion, metastasis and chemotherapy background, familial history, positive pr, positive er, and negative her2/neu. no relationship was observed between the expression of cox-2 with patients’ age, tumor size, age group of the patients after categorization into two groups of under 50 years and over 50 years, lesion location (left or right breast) and tumor grade.

Conclusion

This study confirms the possible role of cox-2 in tumorgenesis of breast cancer. although, this issue needs to be confirmed by larger studies.

Keywords

Cyclooxygenase 2, breast neoplasms, immunohistochemistry