Antitumor Properties of Taxol in Combination With Cyclooxygenase-1 and Cyclooxygenase-2 Selective Inhibitors on Ovarian Tumor Growth In Vivo

The present study was designed to investigate whether taxol in combination with cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitors could be superior on inhibitory effect of ovarian cancer growth than taxol alone as drug therapy of mice implanted with human ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV-3. The animals were treated with 100 mg/kg celecoxib (a COX-2 selective inhibitor) alone or in combination with 3 mg/kg SC-560 (a COX-1 selective inhibitor) by gavage twice a day, 20mg/kg taxol alone by intraperitoneal (IP) once a week or in combination with celecoxib, or SC-560/celecoxib/taxol for 3 weeks. To test the mechanism of the combination treatment, the index of cell proliferation, expression of cyclin D1, and microvessel density (MVD) in tumor tissues were determined by immunohistochemistry and the index of apoptotic cells by the terminal-deoxynucleotidyl-transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labeling (TUNEL) method. Mean tumor volume in the SC-560/celecoxib/taxol group was first significantly lower than control at day 14 (p < 0.05). In the SC-560/celecoxib/taxol group, the index of cell proliferation and apoptosis and quantification of cyclin D1-postive cells were 6.93%, 69.62%, and 19.14%, respectively, which are statistically significant compared with those of the control group (29.85%, p < 0.001; 32.81% and 36.99%, both p < 0.05). Statistical significance on MVD was observed between the SC-560/celecoxib/taxol (39.57 +/- 4.98) and the control (73.2 +/- 1.96) group (p < 0.001). Our results suggest that the combined antitumor efficacy of taxol and COX inhibitors may be superior to taxol alone as drug therapy against ovarian cancer in mice, and that synergism of the combination treatment in part may be mediated through accelerated apoptosis and suppression of cell proliferation and angiogenesis.