Immunohistochemical Detection of Cytokeratin 20 in Colorectal Carcinoma

Abstract

This is a hospital based longitudinal retrospective descriptive study aimed to evaluate the expression of cytokeratin 20(CK20) in colorectal carcinoma patients using immunohistochemistry. The study was conducted in Khartoum state during the period from May to July 2013. Thirty paraffin block samples were collected from patients previously diagnosed as colorectal carcinoma in National public health laboratory using simple random collection method. The paraffin blocks were cut by rotary microtome, and then stained by immunohistochemical method for detection of CK20. The age of study population ranged between 27 and 90 years with mean age of 54. The study revealed that the most patients were older than 50 years representing 17(56.7%) and the remaining 13(43.3%) were younger than 50 years. Out of thirty patients the study showed that the majority of patients were males representing 21(70%) and the remaining 9 (30%) were females. CK20 among study population showed strong expression in 23(76.7%) patients, and weak expression in 7 (23.3%) patients. The grade of cancer of study population revealed that 16 (53.3%) were well differentiated tumor. The study concludes that the CK20 expression is positive in all colorectal carcinoma tissue and the majority of expression is strong. With no association with the grade of cancer.