COX2 expression in high-grade breast cancer: evidence for prognostic significance in the subset of triple-negative breast cancer patients

COX2 expression correlates with high-grade breast cancer, but the clinical significance and possible prognostic influence in these patients have not been studied in depth. Our goal was to evaluate the significance of COX2 expression in a group of patients with high-grade breast cancer. Three hundred and three patients (median age 55; age range 25–95 years) with high-grade breast cancer entered this retrospective study. Mean follow-up was 65.2 months (4–179 months). COX2 expression was studied by immunohistochemistry. The distribution of patients with high-grade tumors according to staining for COX2 was as follows: score 0–28/303 (9.3 %); score 1–101/303 (33.3 %); score 2–114/303 (37.6 %); score 3–60/303 (19.8 %). Patients with score 2 and 3 were classified as COX2 positive (174 of 303 patients (57.4 %). There was no correlation between any clinicopathological pattern, ER, PR, Her2 status and COX2 expression. In the group of patients with triple-negative breast cancer, the 5-year disease-free survival rate was 58.3 % for patients with COX2 expression compared with 83.9 % for patients without COX2 expression (P = 0.042). COX2 expression did not provide any prognostic significance for the other biological subtypes of breast cancer with high-grade histological features.