Background: Breast carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor and the leading cause of carcinoma deaths in women. Its etiology is multifactorial, including reproductive factors, hormonal imbalances and genetic predispositions. According to many studies Cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) plays an important role in the carcinogenesis and increased expression has been regarded as a poor prognostic factor. Objective: The objective of our study is to evaluate COX-2 expression in breast cancer as a prognostic factor. Methods: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were studied for COX-2 expression by immunohistochemistry in 100 patients diagnosed as breast carcinoma. The relationship between COX-2 expression and various clinico-pathological parameters was studied. Results: The results of our study suggest an association of the expression of COX-2 to the poor prognostic factors in breast cancer, hormonal status and HER2/NEU status. Studying the association between COX-2 protein expression using H-score and clinico-pathological characteristics revealed that the median H-score of COX-2 protein expression was higher in her2/neu positive cases compared to her2/neu negative cases and that was statistically significant with a p value (p = 0.023). Also, statistical significant association was found between hormonal receptor negative and median H-score of COX-2 protein expression (p = 0.029). Conclusion: Our study showed the association of COX-2 and the adverse prognostic factors in breast cancer.
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