Espression and significance of COX-2 and VEGF in human gastric carcinoma

Objective To study the expression of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in gastric carcinoma and the possible clinic significance.Methods The expression of COX-2 and VEGF were studied by immunohistochemistry SABC method in 45 gastric carcinoma specimen and 30 normal gastric tissues as control.The averaged light density was assayed by the expression of COX-2 and VEGF,and the statistic software was used to analyze the clinic correlated information.Results The averaged light density(OD) of COX-2 and VEGF in gastric carcinoma were 19.85±7.34,134.67±13.11 respectively,which was significantly higher than that in the normal gastric tissues(12.49±4.87,83.89±8.74,P0.01).The expression of COX-2 and VEGF was associated with the diameter of tumor,TNM stage,lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis(P0.05),but not with age,gender,tumor position,cellular differentiation and histological type.The expression of COX-2 was positively correlated to VEGF (r=0.473,P=0.005).Conclusion COX-2 may induce the expression of VEGF to promote the formation of angiogenesis and the invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma.