Immunohistochemical study of cyclooxygenase-2 in skin tumors.
BACKGROUND
Anti-cancerous effects of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors have been reported in different cancers. High expression of COX-2 has been demonstrated in various neoplasms such as colorectal, gastric, esophageal, breast, non-small cell lung cancers, and pre-neoplastic lesions such as colorectal adenomas and Barrett's esophagus.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate percentage of positive COX-2 expression in skin tumors, including pre-malignant and malignant tumors.


METHODS
This is an analytic cross-sectional study that includes 62 skin tumor samples, among which 49 samples were malignant and 13 were pre-malignant. After study for determination of pathologic kind of tumors, samples underwent immunohistochemical study for COX-2 expression. The DakoCytomation EnVision+System-HRP is a two-step extremely sensitive IHC staining technique which we used in this study.


RESULTS
Among the skin tumors, a considerable number of COX-2 expression were found in squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) (16 of 17; 94%), basal cell carcinomas (BCC) (28 of 32; 87.5%), Bowen's disease (BD) (8 of 9; 89%), and actinic keratosis (AK) (4 of 4; 100%).


CONCLUSIONS
COX-2 expression was positive in skin tumors including malignant and pre-malignant skin lesions. This study strongly suggests that COX-2 can be one of the molecular targets in treating various skin tumors.
Department of Dermatology, Sina Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences , Tabriz , Iran.
Mehdi
M
Amirnia
Arash
A
Babaie-Ghazani
Ashraf
A
Fakhrjou
Effat
E
Khodaeiani
Hossein
H
Alikhah
Mohammad
M
Naghavi-behzad
Armin
A
Zarrintan
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001913:Bowen's Disease / Q000378:metabolism; D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D055623:Keratosis, Actinic / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
D051546:Cyclooxygenase 2