The present study aimed to determine cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and survivin expression levels in glioma tissues, and to investigate their association with clinicopathological factors and patient survival. Immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate COX-2 and survivin expression levels in paraffin-embedded surgically resected tissues from 70 patients with glioma and 7 individuals with normal brain tissues. The association between COX-2 and survivin expression levels and clinicopathological features was investigated using the χ2 test, and the survival time was analyzed using the Kaplan Meier method with log-rank test. COX-2 and survivin were overexpressed in glioma tissues, and higher expression levels were observed in glioma tissues of histological grades III-IV compared with those in grade I-II tumor tissues (P<0.05); however, the expression levels were not associated with gender, age, tumor size or location (P>0.05). There was a significant positive association between the expression levels of COX-2 and survivin in the glioma tissues. Additionally, COX-2 and survivin expression levels were significantly negatively correlated with the rate of survival. In conclusion, COX-2 and survivin expression is positively associated with the pathological grade of a glioma and may contribute to glioma tumorigenesis. Therefore, COX-2 and survivin may be sensitive predictors of a negative clinical prognosis for patients with glioma.
Keywords: cyclooxygenase 2; glioma; immunohistochemistry; prognosis; survivin.