Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in human breast cancer with meta-analyses. Methods The published studies were searched in the CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang databases, and other relevant journals were also handsearched to identify all the relevant case-control trials. The quality of the included studies was assessed. The Cochrane Collaboration’s software RevMan 4.2.10 was used to test the heterogeneity, overall effect and publication bias of the combined studies. Results A total of 8 studies were recruited. As for the positive rate of COX-2 expression, significant differences were tested between breast cancer vs. normal breast tissues, cell differentiation G1 vs. cell differentiation G2-G3 with OR (95%CI) at 16.36 (9.18, 29.15) and 0.34 (0.18, 0.63), respectively. No significant difference was tested between lymph node metastasi vs. non-lymph node metastasi, clinical stages I-II vs. clinical stages III-IV with OR (95%CI) at 1.36 (0.61, 3.03) and 0.61 (0.34, 1.10), respectively. Conclusion According to the domestic evidence, COX-2 may be participated the whole course of carcinogenesis of breast cancer, but is not the absolute factor for estimating the survival rate of the patients with breast cancer, and more high-quality studies are expected for further study.
Objective To investigate the expression of COX-2 in human cervical cancer and explore their relationship between the COX-2 expression and the clinicopathologic characteristic of cervical cancer. Methods The published studies were searched in the CBMdisc (1979 to 2009), CNKI (1979 to 2009), VIP (1989 to 2009) and WANFANG Database (1982 to 2009), and other relevant journals were also hand searched, to identify all the relevant case-control trials. The quality of the included studies was assessed. The Cochrane Collaboration’s software RevMan 4.2.10 was used to test the heterogeneity, overall effect and publication bias of the combined studies. Results A total of 9 studies were recruited. As for the positive rate of COX-2 expression, significant differences was tested between cervical cancer vs. normal cervical tissues, lymph node metastasi vs. non-lymph node metastasi, clinical stages I-II vs. clinical stages III-IV, cell differentiation G1 vs. cell differentiation G2-G3 and cervical squamous cell carcinoma vs. adenocarcinoma with OR (95%CI) at 28.03 (9.53 to 82.50), 5.16 (3.36 to 7.93), 0.53 (0.33 to 0.84), 3.11 (1.86 to 5.22) and 5.00 (2.68 to 9.35) respectively. Conclusions According to the domestic evidence, higher COX-2 expression might be associated with cervical cancer. However, more high quality case-control studies are expected for further study.