histopathological evaluation and analysis of immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 oncoprotein in colorectal carcinoma

Background & objective: colorectal cancer is the third most prevalent malignancy with high mortality rate, necessitating markers that predict survival and guide the treatment. previous studies have examined the immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2, an apoptotic marker, in colorectal carcinoma, but results have been contradictory. to evaluate the histopathological features of colorectal carcinoma, immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 must be analyzed to find out statistical association of bcl-2 expression with certain prognostic factors histopathologic type, grade and tnm staging. methods: this prospective study was conducted on the colectomy specimens of colorectal carcinoma, over a period of two years. the tumor morphology and bcl-2 status were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in each case. results: the study included 58 cases, with mean patient age of 47.07 years and male: female ratio of 1.89:1. bcl-2 positivity was seen in 32.7% of the cases. weak, moderate, and strong expression of bcl-2 was seen in 12.1%, 12.1%, and 8.5% of cases respectively. even though early stages of colorectal carcinoma showed greater frequency of bcl-2 expression than advanced stages (36.3% versus 28%), however this association was not statistically significant. conclusion: lack of statistically significant correlation between bcl-2 immuno-histochemical expression and prognostic parameters like tumor grade and stage, suggests that bcl-2 immunoexpression may not be a significant prognostic marker in colorectal carcinoma.