Correlation Between the Expression of E-cadherin and Cycloox-ygenase-2 in Human Gastric Carcinoma and its Relationship With Lymph Node Metastasis

Objective To study the expression of E-cadherin and COX-2 in gastric carcinoma and its relationship with lymph node metastasis.Methods The expression levels of E-cadherin and COX-2 in 60 gastric carcinoma and 5 normal gastric tissue were examined by immunochemical staining.Results All the normal gastric tissue have positive E-cadherin expression and the expression of E-cadherin in gastric carcinoma was negative in 50(83.3%) of 60 tumors.The negative expression of E-cadherin was significantly associated with the grade of differentiation,tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis,but there was no significant correlation with gender and diameter of primary tumor.There was no expression of COX-2 in normal gastric tissue,but it was positive in gastric carcinoma,and the positive expression was 61.7%(37/60);The positive expression of COX-2 was significantly associated with the grade of differentiation,manner of tumor growth,tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis,but there was no significant correlation with position of tumor,diameter of primary tumor and gender.In addition,the expression of E-cadherin and COX-2 was significantly different in tumor and nontumor tissues.Conclusions The expression of E-cadherin can inhibit invasion and diversion of tumor cell and COX-2 probably participate in invasion and diversion of gastric carcinoma.The down-regulated expression of E-cadherin and the high expression of COX-2 might participate in invasion and diversion of gastric carcinoma together.