Abstract:
Colon cancer, or bowel cancer, is a cancer from uncontrolled cell growth in the colon or rectum. Many genes and proteins intervene in the regulation of cell growth and one of the most interesting multifunctional protein is Beta-catenin (β-catenin) which is a dual functional protein, regulating the coordination of cell–cell adhesion, gene transcription and it supposedto have great role in colon tumorigenesis. This study aimed to detect the expression of Beta catenin in colon tumors. Forty colon samples were used and divided as 10 benign colon, 10 non- adenomatous polyps, 20 colon cancer in, all were initially diagnosed by conventional histological techniques then examined immunohistochemically for beta catenin that expressed different patternsand subcellular localization which varies throughout the stages of tumorigenesis sequence as 3/10 (30 %) of benign inflammatory tissues showed membranous reaction and only 2/10 (20%) expressed membranous/cytoplasmic reactivity. The majority of non adenomatous polyps (80%) revealed cytoplasmic reactivity; also the majority of malignant tissues (75%) showed over expression of cytoplasmic reactivity while the rest (25%) showed prominent nuclear staining (P< 0.000). These results suggested the potential role of ?-catenin localization in colon tumorigenesis and cancer transformation and showed the magnitude of it as diagnostic and prognostic marker
