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

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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.

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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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Bugnon 25, CH 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Hanifa Bouzourene, Pu Yan & Dominique Sandmeier

  2. Department of Radiooncology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CH 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Abderrahim Zouhair

  3. Department of Surgery, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, CH 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Maurice Matter & Henri Vuilleumier

  4. Department of Radiation-Oncology, Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, 5415, Boulevard de l’Assomption, Montréal, QC, Canada, H1T 2M4

    Philippe Coucke

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  1. Hanifa Bouzourene
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  4. Abderrahim Zouhair
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Correspondence to Hanifa Bouzourene.

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Bouzourene, H., Yan, P., Sandmeier, D. et al. The role of COX-2 in rectal cancer treated with preoperative radiotherapy. Virchows Arch 452, 499–505 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-008-0606-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-008-0606-9

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