Expression And Clinical Significance Of COX-2 And INOS In Breast Cancer

Objective To detect the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase in breast cancer. To investigate the correlation between COX-2 and iNOS expression. To investigate the correlation between COX-2 and/or iNOS expression with clinicopathological characters of breast cancer. To probe the effect of COX-2 and iNOS in the process of occurance and progression in breast cancer.Methods 60 cases of surgically resected breast cancer tissue, 17 cases of surgically resected breast fibrocystic adenoma tissue, 23 cases of normal breast tissue adjacent to tumor embedden in paraffin were collected. SP immunohistochemistry technique was used to detect the expression of COX-2 and iNOS.Results The rates of COX-2 expression are respectively 81．7%, 47．8%, 17．6% in breast cancer, fibrocystic adenoma and normal tissue and significantly different (P<0．05) . There were marked correlations of COX-2 expression with age, histological differentiation, expression of HER2 (P<0．05) and no correlations with status of menstruate, 3-year survival, pathological subtype, clinical stage, lymphatic metastastic status, ER and PR status (P>0．05) . The rates of expression are respectively 68．3%, 26．1%, 58．8% in breast cancer, fibrocystic adenoma and normal tissue . The rates of expression in breast cancer and fibrocystic adenoma are not significantly different (P>0．05) and all markedly higher than that in breast normal tissue (P<0．05) . There were marked correlations of iNOS expression with age, status of menstruate, histological differentiation, expression of HER2 (P<0．05) and no correlations with 3-year survival, pathological subtype, clinical stage, lymphatic metastastic status, ER and PR status (P>0．05) . There were significant positive correlations between COX-2 and iNOS expression in 60 cases of breast cancer (P<0．05) and no correlations in breast fibrocytic adenoma or normal tissue respectively (P>0．05) . There were positive coexpression of COX-2 and iNOS in 37 cases (61．7%) of breast cancer. Positive coexpression had significant correlations with age, status of menstruate, 3-year survival, grading of N, histological differentiation, expression of HER2 (P<0．05) .Conclusions Evelated expressions of COX-2 and iNOS were all found in breast cancer. The expression level of COX-2 was correlated with age, histological differentiation, expression of HER2．The expression level of iNOS was correlated with age, status of menstruate, histological differentiation, expression of HER2．There were significant positive correlation between COX-2 and iNOS expression in breast cancer. Coexpression of COX-2 and iNOS was correlated with decreased 3-year survival in breast cancer. By combining to detect the expression of COX-2 and iNOS we may value the prognosis in breast cancer.