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Cyclooxygenase-2 in normal, hyperplastic and neoplastic follicular cells of the human thyroid gland

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Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in follicular cells of the human thyroid. COX-2 expression was studied immunohistochemically in a total of 174 samples. COX-2 immunoreactivity was confined to the cell cytoplasm with the nuclei remaining unlabelled. COX-2 expression was observed in five cases (17.2%) of normal follicular cells and in one case (16.6%) of solid cell nests. Follicular carcinoma expressed COX-2 more frequently than follicular adenoma (93.4% vs 21.1%) (p≤0.001). A higher percentage of cases of papillary microcarcinomas up-regulated COX-2 in comparison with all papillary carcinomas (p≤0.05). However, we could not establish any relationships among COX-2, patients’ ages or lymph node metastases in papillary carcinomas. COX-2 expression was found in 12 (92.3%) poorly differentiated carcinomas and in 13 (92.8%) undifferentiated carcinomas. We found that COX-2 is not always useful as a marker of malignancy. Our results suggest that COX-2 plays a role in progression of all thyroid carcinomas, but in papillary carcinomas, seems more important only in the early stages. COX-2 expression in the undifferentiated carcinoma deserves special consideration due to its prognosis and to the fact that selective COX-2 inhibitors were found to enhance tumour response to radiation in some studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dora C. Insua Santamaría for technical assistance. We also thank Deborah L. Randall for her linguistic supervision. This work was supported by research grant (PGIDE99PXI90201B) sponsored by Xunta de Galicia, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nephrology, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Choupana s/n, 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Miguel García-González & Xosé Manuel Lens Neo

  2. Department of Pathology, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Choupana s/n, 15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Ihab Abdulkader, Angel Vázquez Boquete, Jerónimo Forteza & José Cameselle-Teijeiro

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  1. Miguel García-González
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  2. Ihab Abdulkader
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  3. Angel Vázquez Boquete
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  4. Xosé Manuel Lens Neo
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  6. José Cameselle-Teijeiro
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Correspondence to José Cameselle-Teijeiro.

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García-González, M., Abdulkader, I., Boquete, A.V. et al. Cyclooxygenase-2 in normal, hyperplastic and neoplastic follicular cells of the human thyroid gland. Virchows Arch 447, 12–17 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-005-1235-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-005-1235-1

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