Expression and clinical significance of Survivin and COX-2 in human ampullary carcinoma

Objective To study the expression of Survivin and COX-2 in ampullary carcinoma and their clinical significance.Methods The expression of Survivin and COX-2 proteins were tested by EnVision immunohistochemistry in 40 cases of ampullary carcinomas,and 8 cases of normal ampulla of vater as the controls．Results The positive rate of Survivin in ampullary carcinomas was significantly higher than that of the controls(82.5％vs 0,P<0.01). The expression of Survivin in ampullary carcinoma was correlated with duodenal invasion,pancreatic invasion and lymph node metastasis(P<0.05). Significant difference was also observed in the expression rate of COX 2 between the patients with ampullary carcinoma and the normal controls (67.5％vs 0,P<0.01).The expression of COX-2 in ampullary carcinoma was correlated with duodenal invasion,pancreatic invasion and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Significantly positive correlation was found between the expression of Survivin and COX-2 by using spearman correlation analysis(r=0.383, P=0.015)．Conclusion The specific up regulation of COX-2 gene and Survivin gene may play an important role in the genesis and development of ampullary carcinoma. COX-2 and Survivin may be used as early diagnosis markers and potential therapeutic targets in ampullary carcinoma.