ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationships between the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) , vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the degree of vascularization, clinicopathological feature, survival time of the patients with gallbladder carcinoma. Methods Routine paraffin-embeded sections of gallbladder carcinoma tissues in 64 cases were evaluated for COX-2, VEGF expression and MV by the streptavidin-peroxidase complex immunohistochemical method. Results COX-2, VEGF immunoreactivity were observed in 72%,and 55% cases, respectively. The average MVC was (57?14)/ HP. The status of MVC was closely correlated with Nevin staging, tumor differentiation and lymph node metastasis (P well differentiated,P0.05). There was a positive correlation between COX-2 expression and clinical stages. The positive rate of COX-2 was higher in cases of Nevin stages S4-S5 (82%) with lymph node metastasis than in those of Nevin stages S1 -S3 (50%) and without metastasis (P0.05 ). The expression of VEGF and COX-2 was significantly correlated with that of MVC (t=5.424, P