To investigate the expression of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 in breast carcinoma and their associations with the occurrence, development, invasion and metastasis of breast carcinoma.

The expression of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 was detected by immunohistochemistry S-P method in sixty-one cases of precancerous lesions including twenty-five cases of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), thirty-six cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and seventy-eight cases of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast.Twenty-six cases of hyperplasia breast tissues were selected as control group.The differences of positive rates of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 were compared with chi-square test.

The positive rates of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 in IDC were 67.9%, 64.1% and 79.5% respectively; the positive rates in DCIS were 44.4%, 44.4%, 55.6% respectively, and the positive rates in ADH were 28.0%, 32.0%, 36.0% respectively, which were higher than those in hyperplasia breast tissues(7.7%, 23.1%, 15.4%, χ²=5.696, 12.424, 28.415; P<0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the positive expression rates of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 between ADH and DCIS tissue (χ²=1.699, 0.957, 2.263; P>0.05). There was a correlation between over-expression of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 with the histological grade and lymph node metastasis of IDC repectively, wherease without correlation with age and size of tumor (χ²=3.410, 0.509, 0.103; P>0.05). The expression of COX-2 was positively correlated with HIF-1α and VEGF(r=0.263, χ²=5.412, P<0.05; r=0.436, χ²=9.441, P<0.05).

The overexpression of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 might be important biological markers for the invasion, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis of IDC.The combined detection of HIF-1α, VEGF and COX-2 is a predictor for prognosis.