Premium
Expression of COX‐2 is increased with age in papillary thyroid cancer
Author(s) -
Siironen P,
Ristimäki A,
Nordling S,
Louhimo J,
Haapiainen R,
Haglund C
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2004.01880
Subject(s) - papillary thyroid cancer , thyroid cancer , medicine , oncology , pathology , cancer , papillary carcinoma , thyroid , cancer research , thyroid carcinoma
Aims: To study cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) and matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) expression in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Expression of COX‐2 is elevated in various human tumours and it has an important role in carcinogenesis. MMP‐2 is also an important component of the metastatic potential of tumours. In PTC the most important factor affecting survival is age, but it is poorly understood why older PTC patients have a worse prognosis. Methods and results: This retrospective study comprised 108 patients with PTC, and we compared patients who were either younger than 35 ( n = 59) or older than 55 ( n = 49). Paraffin‐embedded tumour samples were analysed for COX‐2 and MMP‐2 protein expression using immunohistochemistry. High (scores 2–3) COX‐2 immunostaining was observed in 38/108 (35%) of the tumours, and COX‐2 expression was significantly ( P = 0.002) higher in the older age group (25/49; 51%) than in the young one (13/59; 22%). Conclusions: Our study shows that COX‐2 expression increases with age. It is possible that the age‐related increase in COX‐2 expression could explain the more aggressive behaviour of PTC in the older age group compared with the young one.