2024 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 10-16
Introduction: β-catenin plays a major role in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) development. This study aims at investigating the rate of β-catenin expression using immunohistochemistry in CRC among Jordanian patients, comparing different β-catenin compartmentalization in cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nuclei in different grades and stages of CRC, and examining the relationship of β-catenin expression with the clinicopathological features and survival.
Methods: This retrospective, cross sectional study included 63 CRC cases, and investigated the percentage of membranous, cytoplasmic, and nuclear β-catenin positivity using β-Catenin 14 Mouse Monoclonal Antibody on tissue microarray blocks prepared from archived paraffin blocks.
Results: Membranous positivity was observed in 96.8%, cytoplasmic in 69.8%, and nuclear in 36.5% of cases. There was a strong correlation between cytoplasmic and nuclear positivity (Pearson's coefficient = 0.71). There was a significant correlation between M stage and cytoplasmic staining (p = 0.047), but no significant correlation between M stage and nuclear staining (p = 0.42). There was no correlation between cytoplasmic or nuclear expression and sex, age or tumor site or type. There was no difference of survival between positive and negative cases (Log Rank test p = 0.849 for cytoplasmic staining and 0.915 for nuclear staining).
Conclusion: This study documents high expressions of cytoplasmic and nuclear β-catenin in CRC (69.8% and 36.5%, respectively). Furthermore, it shows a trend of higher expression in association with poor prognostic factors such as metastasis and lymph node involvement.
