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Objective: To explore the effects of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Celecoxib on the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in the SKOV3 cell line and the xenografted nude mice of ovarian carcinoma., Methods: The expression of COX-2 in the SKOV3 cell was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), flow cytometry (FCM), and Western blot analysis. The expression of COX-2 in tumor cells was measured with Immunocytochemistry., Results: RT-PCR showed that the expression COX-2 mRNA was strongly down-regulated in SKOV3 cells after treatment with Celecoxib or Aspirin. FCM and Western blot analysis showed that the protein product of COX-2 was strongly decreased by Celecoxib or Aspirin. The Celecoxib was more potential effects than Aspirin. The immunocytochemistry result showed that the expression of COX-2 in 10, 25, 50 mg/kg x d of Celecoxib were lower obviously than it in the control group in Xenografted nude mice., Conclusion: The anticarcinogenic effects of Celecoxib is probably related to the down-regulation of COX-2, and can be explained to both COX-2-dependent and -independent mechanisms.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and chemotherapy response and prognosis of patients with ovarian carcinoma., Methods: The expression of COX-2 was detected by immunohistochemistry in ovarian carcinoma tissues. Correlations between COX-2 and clinicopathological markers, therapeutic effect and prognosis of the patients with ovarian carcinoma were analyzed by chi(2) test, Kplan-Meire and Cox model., Results: COX-2 positive rate of 70 ovarian carcinomas was 60%. Expression of COX-2 was correlated with lymph nodes metastasis only (P = 0.001). There was no correlation between COX-2 and pathohistological types, clinical stage, pathohistological grade, age at diagnosis (P = 0.397, 0.094, 0.275, 0.394). In patients whose serum CA(125) level did not drop to normal after two courses of chemotherapy, the COX-2 positive rate (76%) was significantly higher than in those whose serum CA(125) level decreased obviously (51%, P = 0.042). The positive rate was also higher in patients with recurrent diseases (67%) than in those without recurrence (46%, P = 0.062). In univariate survival analysis, the expression of COX-2 was associated with a significantly reduced median survival time (P = 0.029). In multivariate survival analysis, COX-2 was an independent prognostic factor for poor survival (P = 0.036)., Conclusion: COX-2 expression is correlated with poor chemotherapy response and prognostic outcome. It is an independent prognostic factor of ovarian carcinoma.

Objective: To study the relationship between the expression of glutathione S-transferase-pi (GST-pi) in operative specimens and chemoresistance in patients with ovarian cancer., Methods: The expression of GST-pi in 87 epithelial ovarian cancer tissues and 30 normal ovarian epithelial tissues was determined with labelled streptavidin biotin method (LSAB). All the patients had not received chemotherapy before operation. We used Chi-Square and Cox-Mantel test to analyze the relativity between the expression of GST-pi and clinical pathological data, chemotherapeutic response, prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer., Results: (1) 59 (67.8%) of 87 ovarian cancer tissue were demonstrated to be positive expression with GST-pi, but all 30 normal ovarian epithelial tissue were negative. (2) There was no direct correlation between the expression of GST-pi and clinical pathological data. (3) 43 (43/59) of GST-pi positive cases were chemoresistant, while only 3 (3/28) of GST-pi negative ones were chemoresistant. (4) The difference in the chemotherapeutic response between the two groups was obviously significant (P < 0.005). The survival period of the patients with GST-pi positive expression was also obviously shorter than that of those with GST-pi negative expression (P = 0.004)., Conclusion: These results strongly suggest that GST-pi expression in epithelial ovarian cancer tissues is closely related to chemoresistance clinically and it may be served as a useful marker to predict the prognosis of patients.