: Claudin 4 is one of the tight junction proteins which considered one of the protective barriers that are mostly involved in the regulation of intercellular communication, paracellular transport and apical cell-to-cell adhesion . Overexpression of COX-2 and subsequent increase in prostaglandins (PGs) concentration have emerged in recent years as important players in cancer progression.
Aim of the work:To explore immunohistochemically the expression of both claudin-4 and COX2 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and correlate their expression with each other and with different clinicopathological parameters .
Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was done upon formalin fixed, paraffin blocks of 32 nasopharngeal carcinoma cases and 6 non-neoplastic nasophangeal epithelium. The materials were obtained from archieves of Pathology Departement and Early Cancer Detection Unit(ECDU), Faculty of Medicine, Benha University during the years 2012-2017. The immunohistochemical stain with Claudin 4 and COX2 was done and evaluated for each case.
Results : High expression of claudin 4 was observed in 44 %of studied nasopharngeal cases with statistically significant correlation with tumor stage and distant metastasis (p