Expression And Correlation Of HER-2/neu And Cyclooxygenase-2 In Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

ObjectiveThe aim of this present study is to investigate the expression of Cox-2 and HER-2/neu in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC) and the relationship between the expression of Cox-2 and HER-2/neu, and to evaluate the roles of Cox-2 in tumorigenesis and progression of OSCC by analyzing their relation with each other.Materials and methodsThe analysis was performed retrospectively on 8 normal oral mucosa tissue samples, 38 OSCC samples and 38 paricancerous epithelium tissue samples were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde phosphate-buffered saline and embedded in paraffin. No patient had received preoperative chemotherapy, radiation therapy or other biological therapy. The specific SP immunohistochemistry was used for detecting the express and distribution of Cox-2 and HER-2/neu in all samples. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 16.0 software, using Pearson Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test; Independent-Samples test and Spearman's Correlation test. Statistically significant level was considered as "P<0.05".Results1) Cox-2 protein was negatively expressed in group of normal oral mucosa tissue.HER-2/neu protein was unexpressed or weak expressed in normal oral mucosa tissue.2) The expression of Cox-2 protein and HER-2/neu protein in paricancerous epithelium tissue were higher than that in group of normal oral mucosa tissue.3) In OSCC group, the over expression of Cox-2 protein and HER-2/neu protein were significantly higher than that in the normal oral mucosa tissue and the paricancerous epithelium tissue. There was a good correlation between the expression of Cox-2 protein and HER-2/neu protein(r=0.541, P<0.05).4) In OSCC group, the overexpression of Cox-2 was significantly related with TNM stages, sex, age and lesion location(P<0.05), and was higher in TNMâ…¡,â…¢,â…£stage or neck lymphnode metastasis group than that in TNM stage I or no neck lymphnode metastasis group, but the difference was not significant(P>0.05). The overexpression of HER-2/neu was significantly related with TNM stages, neck lymphnode metastasis, lesion location and sex(P<0.05), and was higher in poorly differentiated group or age older than 50 years old group, the difference was not significant either(P>0.05).Conclusions1. The expression of Cox-2 protein and HER-2/neu protein in OSCC group were significantly higher than that in normal oral mucosa tissue and in paricancerous epithelium tissue;2. In OSCC group the expression of HER-2/neu protein had a strong correlation with expression of Cox-2. It suggested that HER-2/neu may be in coordinated with Cox-2 in carcinogenesis and progression of OSCC.