Expression and clinical significance of cyclooxygenase-2 and HER-2/neu protein in ovarian epithelial cancer

Objective To study the expression and clinical significance of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and HER-2/neu protein in ovarian epithelial cancer.Methods The expression of COX-2 and HER-2/neu protein was detected in 12 cases with normal ovarian tissues,18 cases with benign ovarian epithelial tumor,10 cases with borderline ovarian epithelial tumor and 40 cases with ovarian epithelial cancer by immunohistochemical technology streptavidin-perosidase(sp) method.Results The positive rates of COX-2 and HER-2/neu protein in normal ovary,benign epithelial ovarian tumor,borderline epithelial tumor,and malignant epithelial ovarian cancer tissue were 0%and 8.3%,5.6%and 11.1%,30.0%and 20.0%,85.0%and 52.5%respectively.With the increasing of the malignant degree of ovarian tumor,the positive rates of COX-2 and HER-2/neu protein both increased and the difference was significant(P0.05).Their expression was not correlated with clinical stage,histological type and pathology grade(P0.05),but associated with lymph node metastasis(P0.05).The positive rate of COX- 2 and HER-2/neu protein in the same specimens of ovarian cancer was 52.5%,there was significant correlation between the expression of COX- 2 and HER- 2/neu protein(r = 0.44,P 0.05).Conclusion The overexpression of COX- 2 and HER-2/neu may play an important role in the development of ovarian epithelial cancer,they may collaborative participation in the development of ovarian cancer.