Expression and prognostic significance of p53 and COX-2 in breast carcinoma tissues

Objective To detect the expression of COX-2 and p53 in breast carcinoma tissue and investigate their associations with clinical prognosis.Methods The expression of COX-2 and p53 was carried out in 16 cases of normal epithelial tissue and 152 cases of breast carcinoma tissue using immunohistochemistry SP method.The correlation of their expression with clinical characteristics was analyzed using SPSS software 16.0.Survival analysis was used to investigate their effects on tumor prognosis.Results No positive COX-2and p53 expressions were observed in normal epithelial tissue.Among 152 patients,89 (58.6 ％) were positive staining rete for COX-2 and 93 (61.18 ％) were shown p53 expression, with a statistically significant associations between expressions of COX-2 and p53 and breast cancer (r =0.426,P ＜ 0.01).The COX-2 and p53 expressions were significantly correlated with pathological grade, clinical stage, lymph node or distant organ metastasis.There was a statistically significant correlation between COX-2 and p53 expression and pathological grade Ⅰ / Ⅱ.The 5-year progress-free survival (PFS) rate in patients with COX-2 over-expression was 61.3 ％, which was remarkably lower than that in those with low COX-2 expression.There was no statistically significant difference of 5-year PFS between positive and negative p53 expression.A shorter 5-year PFS was seen in patients with co-expression of COX-2 and p53 than in those with either COX-2 or p53positive expression alone and also than in those with both COX-2 and p53 negative expression.Conclusion Detection of the expressions of COX-2 and p53 can be used to predict the prognosis of breast cancer. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Tumor suppressor protein p53; Cyclooxygenase 2; Prognosis