Overexpression of Cyclooxygenase-2 Is Associated with a Favorable Prognostic Phenotype in Breast Carcinoma

Objectives: Cyclooxygenase (COX) is the rate-limiting enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the involvement of COX-2 protein in breast cancer biological behavior through its correlation with the well-known clinicopathological parameters and the expression of p53, c-erbB-2, topoisomerase IIα (topoIIα) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARγ) proteins, as well as its effect on patients’ survival. Methods: We performed immunohistochemistry to detect COX-2, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), p53, c-erbB-2, topoIIα and PPARγ proteins in 175 cases of invasive breast carcinomas. The results were elaborated by statistic analysis. Results: Cytoplasmic expression of COX-2 was detected in 66.9% of breast carcinoma samples and was inversely correlated with both nuclear and histological grade (p Conclusions: The current data suggest that increased expression of COX-2 may be related to breast carcinomas with less aggressive phenotype. This suggestion is further supported by the positive correlation between COX-2 and PPARγ, since the latter is considered to be indicative of a less malignant phenotype of tumor cells.