Expression of Cyclooxygenase-2 and Its relationship with Tumor Angiogenesis in Breast Carcinoma

[Objective] To detect the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in breast carcinoma tissue and to investigate the relationship between its expression level and the microvessel density(MVD), vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) and other clinicopathologic parameters of the object tissue. [Methods]The samples from 73 patients with breast carcinoma were analyzed to detect the COX-2, MVD and VEGF expression with immunohistochemistry. [Results] Expression of COX-2 was detected in 78.1% of breast carcinoma samples(57/71), among which the expression above midrange was 47.9%(35/73), and its expression level was associated significantly with axillary lymph node metastasis and stage of the tumor(P0.01). There was no significant correlation between COX-2 expression and the size of tumor, HER-2/neu expression and patients' age (P0.05). In addition, MVD and VEGF score was significantly different between COX-2 high-expression cases and COX-2 low-expression cases (P0.01). [Conclusion] The data suggest that expression of COX-2 may promote the angiogenesis of tumor and influence the development and progression of breast carcinoma.