Expression of Cylooxygenase-2 in breast cancer and the relationship with angiogenesis

Objective:To investigate the protein and mRNA expression of COX-2 in breast cancer and to find their correlation with microvascular density.Methods:High sentitive S-P immunohistochemical method and in situ hybridization were used to detect the protein and mRNA expression of COX-2 in 60 breast cancer specimens.Microvessel was determines by immunohistochemistry for CD34 The association between expression of the protein and clinicophatholagic feature was statistically analyze.Results:Immunohistochemistry revealed that among the 60 cases,the positive rates of COX-2 were 63.33%(38/60).There was a significant correlation between the expression of COX-2 protein and the size of tumor,lymphatic metastasis.(P=0.001,P=0.038).It was not correlated with the age ER and PR.(P0.05).The mumber of microvascular in COX-2 positive expression group (61.08 13.51) was significantly higher than that in negative.(43.02 13.87)(P=0.001).The result of the in situ hybridization,the positive rate of COX-2mRNA is 73.33%,which followed closely that of protein-expression.Conclusions:COX-2 are overexpressed in primary breast cancer and related to lymph node metastasis.COX-2 promote the angiogenesis of the breast cancer.