title: Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in malignant and benign breast tumors.
abstract: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is reported to play an important role in carcinogenesis. We examined COX-2 expression in patients with breast cancer and benign breast tumors. Immunohistochemical staining revealed a high level of COX-2 expression in malignant lesions of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) at a rate of 40% and a low level of expression in 15% of adjacent normal-appearing breast epithelia. Similarly, in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a high level of COX-2 expression was found in 80% of malignant lesions and a low level of expression in 50% of normal epithelia. Reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) performed in 7 of these cases disclosed that COX-2 expression was restricted to the malignant lesion. Further, all 10 cases of fibroadenoma and 10 cases of intraductal papilloma, both of which are benign tumors, had a high level of COX-2 expression. When overexpression of COX-2 was analyzed in relation to the clinicopathological features of the patients, no characteristic correlation was noted. Our results demonstrated that COX-2 is expressed in mammary tissue during tumorigenesis of the breast gland, suggesting that the cyclooxygenase isoenzyme may be a target for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical University Daini Hospital, Tokyo 116-8567, Japan. watanosu@dnh.twmu.ac.jp
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Tadao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Imamura
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: Yoshihito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Utada
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okabe
authors.forename: Kiyomi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshimatsu
authors.forename: Motohiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aiba
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ogawa
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000201:enzymology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000201:enzymology; D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2; D005260:Female; D018226:Fibroadenoma / Q000201:enzymology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D018300:Papilloma, Intraductal / Q000201:enzymology; D011451:Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2; C496540:PTGS2 protein, human; D011451:Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases