Potencial prognóstico da expressão de COX-2 e VEGF-C no adenocarcinoma colorretal de pacientes de um Hospital de referência do SUS no tratamento oncológico

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRA) is a worldwide distributed pathology, and lymph node metastasis is associated with a poor prognostic outcome. Angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis are correlated with metastasis. Vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) and Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) are molecules directly involved in those processes. We investigated the possible association of the expression of VEGF-C and COX-2 with clinical/pathology features and five year survival rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and thirty four cases of CRA from a Cancer Reference Hospital were randomly selected. The expression of VEGF-C and COX-2 was detected by immunohistochemistry and a univariate analysis was applied to evaluate the association between their expression and clinical stages, metastasis, and/or survival. RESULTS: COX-2 expression was observed in 98.67% of the adenocarcinoma cases while VEGF-C was found in 54.48% of the cases. COX-2 was highly expressed by all clinical stages of CRA, but its expression was not associated with LN metastasis, tumor infiltration or five years survival. A correlation was observed between LN metastasis and VEGF-C positivity (p=0.02) and clinical stages of the disease. The range of VEGF-C expressions was from 34.6% to 88.9% in stages 1 through 4, respectively. CONCLUSION: The majority of the CRA cases were positive for COX-2. It was observed association between the expression of VEGF-C and LN metastasis as well as with clinical stages of the disease, although no association was found to the overall five year survival rate.