Cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) expression in lymphoma in north-west of Iran

Lymphomas are a group of malignancies affecting B, T and NK cells. COX-2 enzyme is one of the known inflammatory factors which increase in the inflammation process. Increase in COX-2 expression inhibits apoptosis and increases tumor cells invasion and angiogenesis. Increase in the COX-2 gene expression is seen in a group of cancers. Specific COX-2 inhibition also can be beneficial in some cancers through apoptosis stimulation. In a descriptive-analytic study, COX-2 expression degree was evaluated in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Patients’ cases were used to study the following variables: gender, age, lymphoma type, and stage of the disease, the degree of the disease, existence of B symptom, extranodal involvement, and response to treatment, death, and LDH levels. Paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from 153 cases of non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma were selected for immunohistochemical staining for COX-2 expression. COX-2 level were reported positive in four (4.7%), patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and four (5.7%), patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. During the seven year follow-up, 15 patients were suffering from the disease relapse and 9 patients died during this period. There were no significant relation between others quantitative and qualitative variables and COX-2 expression. Also, There was no relation between COX-2 and type of lymphoma (P=0.476). According to our results, there was no relation between cox-2 expression and type of lymphoma. We recommend more patients are needed for more assess cox-2 expression. On the other hand, in our study most of the patients had Azari Race, may be, have an effect in our results