Background: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women in both developed and developing countries. Globally, the incidence rate of breast cancer has been rising rapidly over the past few decades.Cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) regulates tumor growth, invasion and metastasis in breast cancer.
Objective: The objective of our study is to evaluate COX-2 expression in breast cancer as a poor prognostic factor.
Methods: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were studied for COX-2 expression by immunohistochemistry in 100 patients diagnosed as breast carcinoma. The relationship between COX-2 expression and various clinico-pathological parameters was studied.
Results: The results of our study suggest an association of the expression of COX-2 to the poor prognostic factors in breast cancer, such as larger tumor size, positive lymph node status, higher T stage and N stage as studying the association between Cox-2 protein expression and different clinco-pathologic features revealed that larger tumor size (> 5) and lymph node metastasis showed statistical significant association with Cox2 protein expression (p = 0.014 and p < /em> = 0.031, respectively). While rest of clinico-pathologic features such as age, stage, hormonal receptor status, HER2/NEU and histopathological features showed no statistical significant association.
Conclusion: Our study established the role of COX-2 in carcinogenesis and its association with adverse prognostic factors.