Abstract

Background
: Carcinoma of the pancreas is a fatal malignant disease with limited therapeutic options. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and c-erbB-2 are known to be involved in the carcinogenesis, differentiation and invasiveness of various neoplasms. We studied the immunohistochemical expressions of c-erbB-2 and COX-2 and the correlation between these expressions and the clinicopathologic parameters and the relation between the expressions.
Methods
: Immunohistochemical staining for c-erbB-2 and COX-2 were performed on the paraffin embedded sections of 36 cases of surgically resected ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas and 10 cases of non-neoplastic pancreas tissue.
Results
: The non-neoplastic control group showed a c-erbB-2 expression in the acini (8/10) and ducts (2/10), and a COX-2 expression in the acini (6/10) and ducts (3/10). The overexpression of c-erbB-2 was observed in 58% (21/36) of the carcinoma specimens. No significant correlation was found between c-erbB-2 and age, gender, tumor size, gross type, histologic grade, vascular invasion, perineural invasion, lymph node metastasis, and the TNM stage. The overexpression of COX-2 was observed in 41.7% (15/36) of the carcinoma specimens. The COX-2 expression was significantly high in the lymph node metastasis group (p<0.05), but it was not correlated with the other clinicopathologic parameters. Also there was no significant correlation between the c-erbB-2 and COX-2 expressions.
Conclusions
: In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, c-erbB-2 and COX-2 were frequently overexpressed, and COX-2 overexpression was correlated with lymph node metastasis.

• Keywords: Carcinoma;Pancreatic ductal;c-erbB-2 Protein;Cyclooxygenase-2;Immunohistochemistry