title: Cyclooxygenase-2 and tumor biology.
abstract: There is now substantial evidence for the role of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 in causation and prevention of cancer. Selective COX-2 inhibitors (coxibs) were considered attractive candidate chemoprevention agents; however, concerns over the toxicity of systemic selective inhibition have cast some doubt on COX-2 inhibition as a safe chemoprevention strategy. COX-2 can serve as a potential biomarker of tumor evaluation including prognosis. This chapter describes proposed mechanisms for the role of COX-2 in carcinogenesis, proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, promotion of angiogenesis, enhanced invasiveness, immune modulation, and increased mutagenesis. Critical discussions focus on the use of COX-2 as a biomarker in the evaluation of neoplasm. Our chapter demonstrates that "Fecal COX-2 Assay," a novel method to detect COX-2 messenger RNA (mRNA) in feces from subjects with colorectal neoplasms, is potentially useful for colorectal cancer screening.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kanaoka
authors.forename: Tetsunari
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takai
authors.forename: Ken-ichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshida
mesh_terms: D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2