Expression of β-Catenin and E-Cadherin, their Clinical Significance and Association with Complexity Index of Colon Carcinoma.

Cell-cell adhesion and communication relies greatly on the E-cadherin/catenin system. Deregulation in this system may result in phenotypic change, which may create an opportunity for tumor cells to differentiate, metastasize and invade neighbouring tissue. In this study, we aimed to assess the protein expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin in the patients diagnosed with colon carcinoma correlating the levels with growth pattern of tumors using complexity index analysis as well as clinical and pathological features of the patients. 129 colon carcinoma patients were selected to evaluate the protein expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin through immunohistochemical staining. Complexity index of randomly selected patients diagnosed with colon carcinoma was calculated to examine the growth pattern of the tumor. Expression of adhesion proteins was significantly perturbed in colon carcinoma patients as compared with normal mucosa (p<0.05). Similarly the growth pattern of tumor i.e., complexity index value was significantly related to differentiation of the tumor (p=0.002) and Duke’s stages (p=0.026). Our results suggest that E-cadherin and β-catenin may play an indicative role in colorectal cancer invasion and disease progression which may act as prognostic markers in colorectal carcinoma. Also complexity index and adhesive proteins distribution are two independent markers which should aid the development of novel strategies for prevention as well as individual treatment of colon carcinoma.