Prognostic importance of COX-2 expression in patients with colorectal cancer.

A relationship between cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer has been reported in recent studies. Moreover, it has been indicated that COX-2 expression may have a prognostic role in colorectal cancer patients. In this study, we investigated the prognostic significance of COX-2 expression in 83 patients with colorectal cancer. COX-2 expression was assessed using immunohistochemical methods and was evaluated by grading both staining intensity and staining extension. The relationships between COX-2 expression and clinicopathological features of the patients and patient survival were evaluated. There was no relationships between COX-2 expression and tumor size (tm < 3 cm or tm > or = 3 cm), tumor histopathological differentiation (poorly differentiated or moderately + well differentiated), number of metastatic lymph nodes (< 4 or 3 > or = 4), histopathology of the tumor, localization of the tumor (colon or rectum), distant metastasis, and vascular invasion of the tumor. In the multivariate analysis, COX-2 expression was not found as an independent prognostic factor. We demonstrated that COX-2 expression was not correlated with clinicopathological characteristics of colon carcinoma and disease outcome.