Role of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in tumor progression and survival in the squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC)

5508 Background: COX-2 has been implicated in carcinogenesis of human tumors and a promising target for cancer prevention and therapy. The role of COX-2 in HNSCC tumorigenesis still remains to be clarified. Methods: A total of 64 patients (pts) with premalignant lesions or HNSCC and 10 normal epithelia (normal control) of the head and neck from non-smokers without tumor were included. Among 64 pts, 39 with HNSCC were treated with an induction chemotherapy protocol and all tumor tissues were obtained before treatment. The remaining 25 pts with premalignant lesions were treated on a chemoprevention trial. The tissue was obtained either before or after treatment. All squamous epithelial tissues from pts samples were histologically classified as normal (‘normal in field’) (25), low grade dysplasia (LD; mild dysplasia) (14), high grade dysplasia (HD; moderate to severe dysplasia) (29) or carcinoma in situ (CIS) (14). COX-2 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded tissue and scored ...