Cyclooxygenase‑2 expression in non‑metastatic triple‑negative breast cancer patients

Mosalpuria,Kailash; Hall,Carolyn; Krishnamurthy,Savitri; Lodhi,Ashutosh; Hallman,D.  Michael; Baraniuk,Mary  S.; Bhattacharyya,Anirban; Lucci,Anthony

doi:10.3892/mco.2014.327

Cyclooxygenase‑2 expression in non‑metastatic triple‑negative breast cancer patients

Authors:
- Kailash Mosalpuria
- Carolyn Hall
- Savitri Krishnamurthy
- Ashutosh Lodhi
- D. Michael Hallman
- Mary S. Baraniuk
- Anirban Bhattacharyya
- Anthony Lucci
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Affiliations: Department of Surgical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Health Science Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA, Department of Pathology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Health Science Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA, Department of Epidemiology, Health Science Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA, Department of Biostatistics, Health Science Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Published online on: June 23, 2014 https://doi.org/10.3892/mco.2014.327
Pages: 845-850

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Abstract

Triple‑negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterised by lack of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2/neu gene amplification. TNBC patients typically present at a younger age, with a larger average tumor size, higher grade and higher rates of lymph node positivity compared to patients with ER/PR‑positive tumors. Cyclooxygenase (COX)‑2 regulates the production of prostaglandins and is overexpressed in a variety of solid tumors. In breast cancer, the overexpression of COX‑2 is associated with indicators of poor prognosis, such as lymph node metastasis, poor differentiation and large tumor size. Since both TNBC status and COX‑2 overexpression are known poor prognostic markers in primary breast cancer, we hypothesized that the COX‑2 protein is overexpressed in the primary tumors of TNBC patients. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there exists an association between TNBC status and COX‑2 protein overexpression in primary breast cancer. We prospectively evaluated COX‑2 expression levels in primary tumor samples obtained from 125 patients with stage I‑III breast cancer treated between February, 2005 and October, 2007. Information on clinicopathological factors was obtained from a prospective database. Baseline tumor characteristics and patient demographics were compared between TNBC and non‑TNBC patients using the Chi‑square and Fisher's exact tests. In total, 60.8% of the patients were classified as having ER‑positive tumors, 51.2% were PR‑positive, 14.4% had HER‑2/neu amplification and 28.0% were classified as TNBC. COX‑2 overexpression was found in 33.0% of the patients. TNBC was associated with COX‑2 overexpression (P=0.009), PR expression (P=0.048) and high tumor grade (P=0.001). After adjusting for age, menopausal status, body mass index (BMI), lymph node status and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT), TNBC was an independent predictor of COX‑2 overexpression (P=0.01). In conclusion, the association between TNBC and COX‑2 overexpression in operable breast cancer supports further investigation into COX‑2‑targeted therapy for patients with TNBC.

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