Related Experiment Video For COX-2
Updated: Dec 21, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancing Reproductive Immunology with a Protocol for the Quantitative Evaluation of Endometrial Immune Cells
Published on: October 13, 2023
Expression of cyclooxygenase-2 in imprint smears of endometrial carcinoma
Konstantinos Kosmas1, Georgia Mitropoulou2, Marios Stamoulas3
1Department of Cytopathology, General Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens "SOTIRIA", Athens, Greece.
Background:
Worldwide, endometrial carcinoma is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers among women and a considerable cause of death. The aims of this study were to determine the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in endometrial adenocarcinoma in imprint smears as an alternative technique and to correlate the results with clinicopathologic parameters of primary untreated endometrial cancer patients.
Methods:
One hundred twenty-six patients with endometrial carcinoma were evaluated with samples freshly resected after a total abdominal hysterectomy during a 29-month period. The cytologic imprint smears were obtained by touching the cut surface of cancer tissues and the expression of COX-2 was assessed by immunocytochemistry.
Results:
The positive expression of COX-2 in malignant cells, was accompanied by morphologic features of more aggressiveness (pathogenetic type II, advanced clinical stage, mainly high grade, deep myometrial involvement >1/2) tumors and the affected from the disease lymph nodes cases showed higher positivity (41.2%) than the non-affected (13.4%).
Conclusion:
Immunocytochemical findings from COX-2 stain in cancer cells could be a predictor of prognosis in most cases in endometrial cytology with imprint smears. Furthermore, positive expression of COX-2 in cancer cells was related to morphologic features of more aggressiveness tumors.
