Virchows Archiv

, Volume 452, Issue 5, pp 499–505 | Cite as

The role of COX-2 in rectal cancer treated with preoperative radiotherapy

  • Hanifa Bouzourene
  • Pu Yan
  • Dominique Sandmeier
  • Abderrahim Zouhair
  • Maurice Matter
  • Henri Vuilleumier
  • Philippe Coucke
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Radiotherapy is one of the principal modalities of rectal cancer treatment, and the ability to predict radio resistance could potentially improve survival through a targeted treatment approach. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) may protect against damage by irradiation that would justify the use of COX-2 inhibitors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential role of COX-2 in tumor response and outcome of patients with rectal cancer treated preoperatively with radiotherapy. Using immunohistochemistry, we examined COX-2 expression in 88 surgical specimens of rectal cancer treated preoperatively and in 26 pretherapeutic biopsies. We tested whether COX-2 expression was correlated with clinico-pathologic parameters and with survival and local recurrence. COX-2 was expressed in 50% of the pretherapeutic tumor biopsies and in 88.6% of post-irradiated surgical samples. COX-2 expression was correlated only with enhanced tumor inflammation (p = 0.03) and with tumor volume exceeding 30 cc (p = 0.05). COX-2 was not significantly correlated with patient survival, but none of the patients with COX-2 negative tumors did recur locally, whereas 80% of patients with local recurrences have COX-2 positive tumors. We conclude that COX-2 expression is overexpressed in the majority of rectal cancers treated with radiotherapy and likely plays a role in local relapse.

Keywords

Radiotherapy Rectal cancer Cyclooxygenase-2 Survival Recurrence 
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Notes

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by grant from Fonds national Suisse de la recherche scientifique (FNRS 3100-63835).

Conflict of interest statement

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • Hanifa Bouzourene
    • 1
  • Pu Yan
    • 1
  • Dominique Sandmeier
    • 1
  • Abderrahim Zouhair
    • 2
  • Maurice Matter
    • 3
  • Henri Vuilleumier
    • 3
  • Philippe Coucke
    • 4
  1. 1.Institute of PathologyCentre Hospitalier Universitaire VaudoisLausanneSwitzerland
  2. 2.Department of RadiooncologyCentre Hospitalier Universitaire VaudoisLausanneSwitzerland
  3. 3.Department of SurgeryCentre Hospitalier Universitaire VaudoisLausanneSwitzerland
  4. 4.Department of Radiation-OncologyHôpital Maisonneuve-RosemontMontréalCanada

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