Immunohistochemical assessment of Cox-2, and ki- 67 expression in gastric cancer

Abstract

Cell proliferation characteristics may reflect the aggressiveness of gastric cancer and their eventual prognosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the proliferative activities determined by Ki-67 labeling index (LI) could be used as a predictor in patients with gastric cancer, and examine the relation between COX-2 and Ki-67 expression and gastric cancer. The expression of COX-2 and Ki-67 were detected in 40 patients with gastric cancer and 30 healthy individuals were assessed by immunohistochemistry. The biopsies were fixed in 10% buffered formaldehyde solution, embedded in paraffin and stained immunohistochemically with anti-human COX-2 and Ki-67 antibodies. Expression of Ki-67 andCOX-2was significantly higher in tumor compared with control samples.A significant correlation was found between COX-2 and Ki-67 protein expression. In conclusion,the expression of COX-2 and Ki-67 proteins was closely connected with gastric cancer.