Expression Of Cyclooxygenase-2 And Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor In Endometrial Carcinoma And Its Clinicopathologic Parameters

Endometrial carcinoma (EC) is one of the three most frequenl malignancy in femal genital tract,which is 7% of the all femal malignancy and 20% -30% of the malignancy in female genital organs. Recently, its incidence is gradually elevated on world scale. Endometrial carcinoma becomes a major disease that threaten femal livers. Thus, studies on etiology, methods of early diagnosis and effective treatment for endometrial carcinoma become focus to be investigated.OBJECTIVETo evaluate the expression of COX-2 and VEGF and their correlationship with clinicopathologic characteristics in endometrial carcinoma, and the corela-tionship between COX-2 and VEGF in endometrial carcinoma.MATERIALS AND METHODSThe subjects were 42 patients who underwent surgical excision and his-topathologically diagnosed with endometrial adenocarcinoma at the second hospital between May 1999 and October 2002. For the controls, 10 specimens of normal endometrial tissue. All the specimens were detected by the technique of the immunohistochemical S-P with monoclonal antibody against COX-2, polyclonalantibody against VEGF (Santa Cruz Biotechnology,Inc. ).For statistical analysis,the chi-square test and Pearson's correlation coefficient(r) were used. P value less than 0.05 was regarded as significant.RESULTS1. COX-2 and VEGF immunoreactivity was demonstrated not only in carcinoma cells but also in tumor vascular endothelial cells.2. Of the 42 endometrial adenocarcinomas,35 (83. 3% ) were positive and 7 (16.7%) were negative for COX-2. No COX-2 staining was detected in normal endometrium And the expression was significant difference between the endometrial carcinoma and normal endometrium( P <0. 01). There was no significant association between COX-2 expression and histological grade, depth of myo-metrial invasion, lymph involvement ( P >0. 05). The expression of COX-2 was higher in stage II III (90. 5% ) than in stage I (76. 2% ) , but the difference was not significant( P > 0. 05).3. Of the 42 endometrial adenocarcinomas,32 (76. 2% ) were positive and 10 (28. 3% ) were negative for VEGF. One VEGF staining was detected in normal endometrium And the expression was significant difference between the endometrial carcinoma and normal endometrium( P <0.01) . There was no significant association between VEGF expression and surgical stage and lymph involvement (P > 0. 05). The positive expression rate of VEGF was higher in tumor with > 1/2 mymometrial invasion(88. 9% ) than with 1/2 mymometrial invasion (66. 7% ) ,higher in histological grade G2 + G3(86.4% ) than in Gl (65. 0% ) ,but both of the differences were not significant( P >0.05).4. The expression of COX-2 was corelated with the expression of VEGF in endometrial carcinoma, The positive expression rate of VEGF in COX-2 positive endometrial carcinomas was 88. 6% , and that in COX-2 negative endometrial carcinomas was 14. 3%.CONCLUSIONS1. overexpressions of Cyclooxygenase ( COX) -2 was detected in endometri-al carcinoma.2. overexpressions of VEGF was detected in endometrial carcinoma.3. the expression of COX-2 was corelated with the expression of VEGF in endometrial carcinoma.