Risks of colorectal neoplasms and cardiovascular thromboembolic events after the combined use of selective COX-2 inhibitors and aspirin with 5-year follow-up: a meta-analysis.
Levels of COX-2 mRNA are found over-expressed in almost 80% of the colorectal tumors, compared to paired adjacent normal colorectal mucosa, suggesting a role of COX-2 as a potential biomarker for cancer risk, whereas inhibitors of COX-2 could be of value in chemoprevention of colon cancer.
In addition, COX-2 up-regulation represents a pivotal cellular adaptive response to hypoxia with implication for colorectal tumor cell survival and angiogenesis.
In addition, overexpression of COX-2 was found more frequently in colorectal tumors with lymphatic invasion, regional lymph node metastasis and larger size, although without statistical significance.
We analyzed and compared expression of the inducible COX-2 isoform in colorectal neoplasms from patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), and sporadic CRC.