Abstract:

Objective　To detective the relationship between cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and angiogenesis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its clinical significance through observing the expression of COX-2 and determining microvessel density (MVD) in OSCC.Methods　PV-9000 immunohistochemistry was used to determine the expression of COX-2 and CD34, which was used to determine MVD, in 76 OSCC tissues and 12 normal oral mucosa tissues.Results　Overexpression of COX-2 was de- tected in OSCC, and was more intense compared with normal epithelium (P<0·001). The high expression of COX-2 in OSCC was related to neck lymphnode metastasis, tumor size, TNMstage and histological grade (P<0·05). The MVD value in COX-2- positive group was much higher than that in COX-2-negative group (P< 0·01) and that in normal oral mucosa tissues (P<0·01).Conclusion　The high expression of COX-2 in OSCC was significantly associated withMVD, neck lymphnode me- tastasis, tumor size, TNM stage and histological grade. COX-2 might be one of the important factors in the angiogenesis of OSCC.

Key words: oral squamous cell carcinoma, cyclooxygenase-2, angiogenesis