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Cyclooxygenase‐2 expression in endometrial carcinoma
Author(s) -
Ferrandina Gabriella,
Legge Francesco,
Ranelletti Franco O.,
Zani Gian F.,
Maggiano Nicola,
Evangelisti Antonella,
Mancuso Salvatore,
Scambia Giovanni,
Lauriola Libero
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.10736
Subject(s) - medicine , immunohistochemistry , carcinoma , proportional hazards model , endometrial cancer , stage (stratigraphy) , cyclooxygenase , oncology , gynecology , gastroenterology , pathology , cancer , biology , paleontology , biochemistry , enzyme
BACKGROUND Cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) is overexpressed in endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma, but no data have been reported until now about the expression of COX‐2 and its possible clinical significance in endometrial carcinoma. We investigated by immunohistochemistry the expression of COX‐2 in a single institutional series of primary untreated endometrial carcinoma patients. The relationship between COX‐2 expression and microsatellite instability (MI) status was also analyzed. METHODS The study was conducted on 69 primary untreated endometrial carcinoma patients who were admitted to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Catholic University of Rome. Immunohistochemistry was performed by using rabbit polyclonal antiserum against human COX‐2. Analysis of MI was performed for 47 patients with endometrial carcinomas. RESULTS Twenty‐seven patients (39.1%) were scored as COX‐2 positive. COX‐2 positivity was higher (60.8%) in endometrial carcinoma with cervical or extrauterine involvement than in tumors limited to the corpus (28.3%; P = 0.0174). COX‐2 positivity increased from Grade 1 (13.6%) to Grade 2 (41.7%) to Grade 3 (60.9%) endometrial carcinoma ( P = 0.0049). Interestingly, considering early International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage patients ( n = 53), the percentage of COX‐2 positivity was higher in patients with deep myometrial invasion (66.7%) than in patients without or less than 50% myometrial invasion (15.6%) ( P = 0.0003). No association between COX‐2 and MI status was found. COX‐2–positive patients showed a trend to a shorter disease‐free survival than COX‐2–negative patients ( P = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS COX‐2 is expressed in a high percentage of a large series of primary endometrial tumors and its expression may be associated closely with parameters of tumor aggressiveness The possible prognostic role of COX‐2 in endometrial carcinoma deserves further study. Cancer 2002;95:801–7. © 2002 American Cancer Society. DOI 10.1002/cncr.10736