A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY OF COX-2 (CYCLO- OXYGENASE 2) IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION IN BREAST CARCINOMA AT A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL IN CHENGELPET DISTRICT

Abstract

Abstract: The breast carcinoma represents one of the most common malignancies among women and has been a cause of death among cancer victims in the world. Learning how to identify dependable prognostic biomarkers is important in enhancing the evaluation and management planning of diseases. The aim of the study was to measure the level of the immunohistochemical expression of Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in breast carcinoma and establish its correlation with clinicopathological parameters. On 64 histopathologically confirmed cases of breast carcinoma, a cross sectional observational study was done. Immunohistochemical staining of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections with the COX-2 and staining intensity was graded using a semi-quantitative scoring system. Spearman rank correlation was used as a measure of statistical analysis. COX-2 was positive in three-quarters of the cases, and high levels were found in 31.3% of tumours. COX-2 expression levels exhibited significant positive correlations with the tumour size, histological grade and pathological stage, revealing that the higher the COX-2 expression is, the more aggressive any of the described tumour characteristics are expected to be. Nevertheless, there was a lack of statistically significant correlation between COX-2 expression and the age of patients or their invasion of the lymph node. The research findings indicate that the COX2 overexpression is prevalent in breast carcinoma and it is also linked with poor pathological characteristics. Consequently, COX-2 can be an important prognostic biomarker, and can be a therapeutic target, which further justifies it in the pathological testing of a breast cancer patient to enable the provision of a better prognostic assessment and personalized patient therapeutic intervention.