Coexpression of VEGF-C and COX-2 and its association with lymphangiogenesis and prognosis in human breast cancer

Objective To investigate the relationship between vascular endothelial growth factor- C(VEGF-C)and cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2)in human breast cancer,and their correlations with lym- phangiogenesis and prognosis.Methods Tissue samples of breast cancer from 70 patients were immtmo- histochemically examined for the expression of VEGF-C,COX-2 and D2-40.The association between COX- 2 and VEGF-C expression and elinicopathological parameters and prognosis were analysised.Results El- evated VEGF-C expression was observed in 30 of 70 patients(42.8%),while elevated COX-2 expression occurred in 46 of 70 tumor samples(65.7%).A significant correlation was found between the expression of VEGF-C and COX-2(r = 0.529,P0.01).High expression of both the VEGF-C and COX-2 was cor- related with the lymph node metastasis,lymph vessel density and D2-40 positive lymph vessel invasion (P0.05).Additionly,high expression of VEGF-C,but not COX-2 was correlated with advanced histolog- ical grading(P0.01).Univariate analysis demonstrated that high expression of both VEGF-C and COX- 2 was associated with worse disease free survival(P0.01)and overall survival(P0.05).Conclu- sion VEGF-C and COX-2 are coexpressed and significantly associated with lymphangiogenesis and prog- nosis in breast cancer,suggesting COX-2 may up-regulate VEGF-C expression and thus promote lymph node metastasis via lymphangiogenesis pathway in human breast cancer.