Relationship among COX-2, VEGF, MVD and invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma

Objective] To investigate the expression level of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2), vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF), microvascular density(MVD) in gastric carcinoma and the relationship between their expression levewith tumor cell invasion and metastasis. [Methods] The expression of COX-2 and VEGF and MVD were studied in 82 cases with gastric carcinoma and 26 samples of normal stomach tissue by using streptavidin-peroxidase immunohistochemistry. [Results] The expression of COX-2 in gastric carcinoma was significantly higher than that of the control group. Over expression of COX-2 in gastric carcinoma was related to lymph node metastasis, deep invasion and TNM stage. But it did not correlate with the size of tumor and the differentiation degree (P 0.05). In the group with COX-2 positive expression, MVD was higher than that of group with COX-2 negative expression. The expression of COX-2 was significantly positive related to expression leve of VEGF. [Conclusions] The over expression of COX-2 is related to the invasion and metastasis of gastric carcinoma and they may contribute to angiogenesis.