Over the years, adenocarcinoma (ADC), which has a worse prognosis than squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervix, has shown an increasing trend. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) expression which has been associated with worse prognosis in several solid cancers was studied for its association with SCC and ADC of the cervix. 35 histologically re-confirmed SCC and 35 ADC were immunohistochemically stained for COX2 using a mouse monoclonal antibody to COX2 (1:100; Dako: Clone CX-294) on a Ventana Benchmark XT. The histoscore was computed as intensity of staining, semi-quantitated on a scale of 0-3 with 0 = negative, 1 = weak, 2 = moderate and 3 = strong staining intensity; multiplied by percentage of immunopositivity on a scale of 0-4 with 0 = <1%, 1 = 1-25%, 2 = 26-50%, 3 = 51-75% and 4 = ≥75% of immunopositive tumour cells. Histoscore 1-3/12 was considered as low and ≥4/12 as high COX2 expression. SCC affected Chinese more than Malays, while Malays had more ADC (p = 0.032). Mean age at presentation of SCC (57.5 years) was about a decade later than ADC at 47.9 years (p = 0.002). 30/35 (85.7%) of SCC and 34/35 (97.1%) of ADC expressed COX2. Histoscores of ADC (median = 4.0, IQR = 3.0-6.0) was significantly higher (p = 0.014) than those of SCC (median = 3.0, IQR = 2.0-3.0). High histoscores (≥4/12) were more frequent in ADC (55.9%) compared with SCC (26.7%) (p = 0.018), implicating COX2, either directly or indirectly, as a possible player in influencing the poorer outcome of ADC compared with SCC.
The study was aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Polygonum minus (Huds) using in vitro and in vivo approaches.
Chemoprevention has become an important area in cancer research due to the failure of current therapeutic modalities. Epidemiological and preclinical studies have demonstrated that nutrition plays a vital role in the etiology of cancer. This study was conducted to determine the chemopreventive effects of germinated brown rice (GBR) in rats induced with colon cancer. GBR is brown rice that has been claimed to be richer in nutrients compared to the common white rice. The male Sprague Dawley rats (6 weeks of age) were randomly divided into 5 groups: (G1) positive control (with colon cancer, unfed with GBR), (G2) fed with 2.5 g/kg of GBR (GBR (g)/weight of rat (kg)), (G3) fed with 5 g/kg of GBR, (G4) fed with 10 g/kg of GBR and (G5) negative control (without colon cancer, unfed with GBR). GBR was administered orally once daily via gavage after injection of 15 mg/kg of body weight of azoxymethane (AOM) once a week for two weeks, intraperitonially. After 8 weeks of treatment, animals were sacrificed and colons were removed. Colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF) were evaluated histopathologically. Total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, and the expression of beta-catenin and COX-2 reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in all the groups treated with GBR (G2, G3 and G4) compared to the control group (G1). Spearman rank correlation test showed significant positive linear relationship between total beta-catenin and COX-2 score (Spearman's rho = 0.616, p = 0.0001). It is demonstrated that GBR inhibits the development of total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, reduces the expression of beta-catenin and COX-2, and thus can be a promising dietary supplement in prevention of colon cancer.