This article is part of the supplement: 35te Tagung der Pathologen am Oberrhein/35th Meeting of Pathologists of the Upper Rhine Region (PATOR)

Oral presentation

COX-2 expression in thymomas and thymic carcinomas: a novel therapeutic target?

RJ Rieker¹, PhA Schnabel¹, G Mechtersheimer¹, M Thomas², H Dienemann², P Schirmacher¹ and MA Kern¹

¹Institut für allgemeine Pathologie, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Germany

²Thoraxklinik Rohrbach am Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Germany

corresponding author email

from 35te Tagung der Pathologen am Oberrhein/35th Meeting of Pathologists of the Upper Rhine Region (PATOR)
The Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany. 1 July 2006

Diagnostic Pathology 2007, 2(Suppl 1):S3doi:10.1186/1746-1596-2-S1-S3

Published:	14 March 2007

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

The treatment of advanced stage thymomas and thymic carcinomas is multimodal and includes surgery as well as radiochemotherapy. New therapeutic targets such as EGFR and c-kit are currently under investigation. A number of studies have shown a protumorigenic potential of Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), an enzyme of the prostaglandin metabolism, in a variety of human malignancies, but so far it is unknown whether COX-2 is expressed in epithelial tumors of the thymus.