Kim Young A, Chang Meesoo, Park Young Joo, Kim Ji Eun
Department of Pathology, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Korean J Pathol. 2012 Feb;46(1):55-60. doi: 10.4132/KoreanJPathol.2012.46.1.55. Epub 2012 Feb 23.
Overexpression of survivin, a member of the inhibitors of apoptosis protein, has been reported in various carcinomas, and its interaction with cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) results in accelerated tumor progression. The purpose of this study is to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of survivin and COX-2 in benign and malignant thyroid tissues and to define its association with pathologic and clinical features.
We examined expression of survivin and COX-2 by immunohistochemistry in 334 benign and malignant thyroid tissues and evaluated their clinical significance.
Expression of survivin showed an increase along the spectrum of thyroid carcinoma progression; rarely positive in adenomatous goiter, moderately positive in papillary carcinoma, and strongly positive in anaplastic carcinoma (AC). Papillary microcarcinoma revealed the highest COX-2 positivity and AC demonstrated the lowest positivity among thyroid cancers. Node negative carcinomas showed higher COX-2 expression than node positive tumors. Survivin expression did not correlate with COX-2.
Our findings suggest that survivin overexpression may be related to the pathogenesis of AC and can be a predictor of disease progression. COX-2 may be involved in the early phase of thyroid carcinoma.
凋亡抑制蛋白家族成员survivin在多种癌症中均有过表达的报道，其与环氧化酶2（COX-2）相互作用会加速肿瘤进展。本研究旨在探讨survivin和COX-2在甲状腺良恶性组织中的免疫组化表达情况，并明确其与病理及临床特征的相关性。
我们采用免疫组化法检测了334例甲状腺良恶性组织中survivin和COX-2的表达情况，并评估了它们的临床意义。
survivin的表达随甲状腺癌进展程度增加；在腺瘤性甲状腺肿中罕见阳性，在乳头状癌中呈中度阳性，在未分化癌（AC）中呈强阳性。甲状腺癌中，微小乳头状癌的COX-2阳性率最高，AC的阳性率最低。无淋巴结转移的癌组织中COX-2表达高于有淋巴结转移的肿瘤。survivin的表达与COX-2无关。
我们的研究结果表明，survivin过表达可能与AC的发病机制有关，并且可以作为疾病进展的预测指标。COX-2可能参与甲状腺癌的早期阶段。
