Etodolac, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, induces upregulation of E-cadherin and has antitumor effect on human bladder cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Objectives: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is highly expressed in several human cancers, including bladder cancer. Thus, a selective COX-2 inhibitor could be useful as an antitumor agent for a range of cancers. In the present study, we investigated the antitumor effect and E-cadherin induction of etodolac, a highly selective COX-2 inhibitor, on human bladder cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.
Methods: We examined the cytotoxicity of etodolac against three human bladder cancer cell lines, T24, 5637, and KK47, and performed quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction to measure the mRNA expression of COX-2, and E-cadherin.
Results: Etodolac showed significant cytotoxicity only to T24 cells, which expressed the greatest level of COX-2 mRNA and the lowest level of E-cadherin mRNA among the three cell lines. Etodolac also increased the E-cadherin mRNA expression in T24 cells in vitro. We also found that etodolac suppressed tumor growth and induced E-cadherin expression and cell apoptosis in a T24 tumor xenograft mouse model.
Conclusions: Etodolac exhibited antitumor activity and induced E-cadherin expression in bladder cancer cells and might be useful for the clinical treatment and prevention of bladder cancer, especially in poorly differentiated bladder cancer with high COX-2 and low E-cadherin expression.