Purpose: To explore the relationships of pain in pancreatic cancer patients with pathological stage and expressions of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2).
Methods: A total of 54 patients with pancreatic cancer were enrolled to evaluate the pain before treatment, detect the expressions of NF-κB and COX-2, an inflammatory mediator, in tumor tissues by the immunohistochemical method and analyze their relationships with the pain in these patients.
Results: The expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 varied obviously among pancreatic cancer patients with different degrees of pain, and as the pain was aggravated, the patients had raised expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 in tumor tissues (p<0.05). The degree of pain also differed evidently among the patients at different tumor node metastasis (TNM) stages, and the higher the pathological stage, the higher the degree of pain in patients (p<0.05). The pain score of patients was positively correlated with the expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 (p<0.05).
Conclusions: The degree of pain in pancreatic cancer is closely related to the pathological stage and expressions of NF-κB and COX-2, and the expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 are raised and the pain is aggravated as well in the patients at a higher pathological stage.