Several studies indicate that the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may reduce the risk of gastric corpus and possibly gastric cardia cancers. The best known action of NSAIDs is to block the enzyme cyclooxygenase, the rate limiting enzyme in the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. We investigated the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) in adenocarcinomas of the gastric cardia (N=19) and corpus (N=15) and in adjacent normal epithelium from a high risk Chinese population. Immunohistochemical detection of Cox-2 revealed positive staining in 36% of the gastric cardia cancer cases and 60% of the gastric corpus cancer cases, whereas histologically normal tissue from the same patients were negative. Smooth muscle, stroma and inflammatory cells were also positive. Our results suggest that Cox-2 is overexpressed in a large proportion of adenocarcinomas of the gastric corpus and in a smaller number of gastric cardia cancer cases.

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