The Expression of COX-2 and VEGF in Breast Cancer and Their Clinical Significance to Prognsis

Objective To investigate the expression of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) in the cancer tissue of patients with breast cancer and their clinical significance to prognosis. Methods 117 paraffin blocks of breast cancer had been collected in our hospital from 1999 to 2006,which were microarrayed randomly in tissue chips and stained immunohistochemically. The expression of COX-2 and VEGF in breast cancer were detected,and the relationships among their expression,the pathobiological behavior,survival time of breast cancer were analyzed to evaluate their prognostic significance. Results The expression of COX-2 was positive in 55.6%,which were positively correlated with some biological behaviors of breast cancer (TNM stage,lymph node metastasis and HER-2 and ER state)(P = 0.01、r = 0.238,P 0.001、r = 0.326,P = 0.025、r = 0.218,P = 0.026、r = -0.205,respectively),and was negatively correlated with ER. High expression of VEGF was also found in breast cancer tissues (66.7%),which had a positive correlation with COX-2 expression in statistics(P 0.001、r = 0.608). The survival time of patients with positive COX-2 expression and VEGF expression was significantly shorter than that without the expression. Conclusion The expressions of COX-2 and VEGF are high in breast cancer tissues and are associated with the prognosis of breast cancer,which can be used as an important prognostic index of breast cancer.