Expression of COX-2 and Survivin in papillary thyroid carcinoma tissues and their clinical significance

Objective To investigate the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and survivin in papillary thyroid carcinoma tissues and their clinical significance.Methods The clinical pathological data of 60 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma managed with a routine surgical treatment in Zaozhuang municipal hospital from December 2006 to December 2011 were retrospectively analyzed.Immunohistochemical SP method was used to determine the expressions of COX-2 and survivin in the thyroid carcinoma tissues and 20 cases of adjacent normal thyroid tissues.Results The positive expression rates of COX-2 and survivin in the thyroid carcinoma tissues were 85.0％ and 66.7％,the positive expression rates of COX-2 and survivin in the thyroid carcinoma tissues were significantly higher than those in normal thyroid tissues.The positive expression rates of COX-2 and survivin in the thyroid carcinoma tissues were not related with age and tumor size (P ＞ 0.05),but were associated with clinical stage and the number of lymph node metastasis (P ＜ 0.05).The positive expressions of COX-2 and survivin in the thyroid carcinoma tissues were increased with the increase in TNM staging and the number of lymph node metastasis.COX-2 was positively correlated with survivin (r =0.396,P =0.004).COX-2 and survivin dualpositive patients had higher rates of recurrence and metastasis than COX-2 and survivin dual-negative patients(x2 =4.181,P =0.041),COX-2 and survivin double-positive patients with a high rate of recurrence and metastasis.Conclusions Detection of the expressions of COX-2 and survivin can estimate the metastatic potential and predict the prognosis for papillary thyroid carcinoma. Key words: COX-2 ;  Survivin ;  Papillary thyroid carcinoma ;  Immunohistochemistry ;  Prognosis