Immunohistochemical study of cyclooxygenase-2 in skin tumors

• Published in: The Journal of dermatological treatment 2014-10, Vol.25 (5), p.380-387
• Main Authors: Amirnia, Mehdi, Babaie-ghazani, Arash, Fakhrjou, Ashraf, Khodaeiani, Effat, Alikhah, Hossein, Naghavi-behzad, Mohammad, Zarrintan, Armin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actinic keratosis (AK); Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; basal cell carcinomas (BCC); Biological and medical sciences; Bowen's disease (BD); Bowen's Disease - metabolism; Carcinoma, Basal Cell - metabolism; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - metabolism; Cross-Sectional Studies; Cyclooxygenase 2 - biosynthesis; cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2); Dermatology; Dyskeratosis; Female; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; immunohistochemistry (IHC); Keratosis, Actinic - metabolism; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Multiple tumors. Solid tumors. Tumors in childhood (general aspects); Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Skin - metabolism; Skin Neoplasms - metabolism; Skin, nail, hair, dermoskeleton; squamous cell carcinomas (SCC); Tumors; Tumors of the skin and soft tissue. Premalignant lesions; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0954-6634; 1471-1753
• DOI: 10.3109/09546634.2012.674191

Abstract Introduction: 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. Goal: 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%). Conclusion: 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.