[Expression of COX-2 and MMP-9 in cervical carcinoma and their clinical significance]

To investigate the expressions of COX-2 and MMP-9 in cervical carcinoma and their clinical significance.

Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expressions of COX-2 and MMP-9 in 72 cases of invasive carcinoma of cervix (ICC) and 16 cases of normal cervical epithelium remote from tumor (NCE), and the relationship between the expressions of COX-2 and MMP-9 in ICC and some factors relating to clinical pathology of cervical carcinoma such as histopathological grading, lymph node metastasis, stroma involvement and FIGO staging were analyzed statistically.

The rates of positive expression of COX-2 and MMP-9 in ICC were significantly higher than those in NCE. COX-2: 88.9% in group ICC and 12.5% in group NCE, P = 0.000. MMP-9: 94.4% in group ICC and 43.8% in group NCE, P = 0.000. The expression of COX-2 was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis and stroma involvement (r = 0.296, P = 0.012 in group ICC and r = 0.257, P = 0.029 in group NCE, respectively). The expression of MMP-9 was positively correlated with FIGO staging (r = 0.329, P = 0.005) and histopathological grading (r = 0.351, P = 0.003). The expression of COX-2 was positively correlated with the expression of MMP-9 in ICC (r = 0.297, P = 0.011).

The overexpressions of COX-2 and MMP-9 are closely related to the invasion and growth of cervical carcinoma. The tissue with overexpression of COX-2 has strong invasion ability. COX-2 and MMP-9 have synergistic effect on proliferation, invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. Detecting the expression of both COX-2 and MMP-9 may be of value in further understanding the biological behavior and predicting the prognosis of cervical carcinoma.