Expression and clinical significance of P-catenin in colon carcinoma

Objective To study the expression and clinical significance of β-catenin in colon carcinoma. Methods Specimens from colon carcinoma (62 cases) ,colonadenoma(18 cases) and normal colon tissues(10 cases) for which tissue microarrays were constructed and used for immunohistochemical detection of β-catenin protein expression. Results Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue microarrays demonstrated β-catenin protein expression in 80.6 % of the colon carcinoma and in 83 .3 % of colon adenoma. The expression of β-catenin was higher than that of normal tissues( P 0.01) , while between colon carcinoma and colon adenoma,being of no significance ( P 0.05 ) . β-catenin expression was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation status. Tumors with regional nodal metastasis showed higher abnormal staining rate(92.5% ) than those without nodal involvement (59.0% )( P 0.01) .The expression of β-catenin was not relevant to depth or size of tumors.Conclusion Abnormal expression of β-catenin is associated with invasion and metastasis of colon carcinoma, and is an important factor in development of highly invasive tumor.β-catenin could be used as an important marker of colon carcinoma.