Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and c-erbB-2 in human breast cancer and their correlationship / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the expression and correlation of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and c-erbB-2 in human breast cancer.Methods: The expressions of COX-2 and c-erbB-2 in 48 breast cancer patients with breast cancer were detected with immunohistochemistry examination and was analyzed.The relationship between their expression and the clinicopathologic characters of breast cancer was also analyzed.Results: The positive rate of COX-2 was 60.4%(29/48) in these patients;the expression was higher in patients with tumor size larger than 2 cm,lymph node metastasis,and negative expression of ER or PR,but was not related with the ages,the pathologic types and the TNM stages.Expression of c-erbB-2 was identified in(39.6%)(19/48) of these patients;the expression was significantly higher in patients with lymph node metastasis or negative expression of ER and PR,but was not related with the ages,the sizes and the pathologic types.COX-2 was positive in 84.2%(16/19) of patients positive of c-erbB-2 and in 44.8%(13/29) of patients negative of c-erbB-2,with significant difference found between the 2 figures(P=0.006).Conclusion: The high expression of COX-2 in breast cancer is related to the expression of c-erbB-2,suggesting that they may regulate each other and jointly contribute to the tumorigenesis and progression of breast cancer.