Background: Colorectal carcinoma considered the most worldwide concern and one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality rates. The cancer originates from a types of tumor cells, called cancer stem cells, they have important in the initiation of the tumor, invasion, metastasis, and therapeutic resistance. Among CSC markers, CD44 and OPN are two of the most investigated colorectal cancer markers and they are considered as the subpopulation with a greater tumorigenicity. This study aiming assessing the immunohistochemical expression of CD44 & OPN in colorectal adenomas & CRCs. And their relation between immunohistochemical expression of CD44 & OPN with tumor differentiation (grading), lympho-vascular invasion, perineural invasion, desmoplasia and TNM stage. Methods: the study is a retrospective descriptive study that included forty-two paraffin embedded blocks from the pathology laboratory, Suez Canal University Hospital. Paraffin blocks included, paraffin blocks reviewed for clinicopathological prognostic factors and stained by CD44 & OPN, monoclonal antibodies by immunohistochemical method. Results: The CD44 protein was expressed in 80% of CRC, the expression of CD44 and lympho-vascular invasion and tumor stage. Conclusions: CD 44 is highly expressed in large number of CRC (80 of tumors). It is also significantly more expressed in CRC than in adenomas, suggesting a role of CD 44 in CRC tumorigenesis and progression of adenomas into carcinomas. Our study also associated CD 44 overexpression with both late TNM stage and lymphovascular invasion.

Background: IGF-1R is a transmembrane receptor belongs to class of tyrosine kinase receptors, found in many tumors and is often associated with an aggressive phenotype. IGF-1R is important for regulation of growth, differentiation and apoptosis, as such, could be a pre¬ferred target for therapeutic interventions.Aim: Investigate the expression pattern of IGF-1R in different histological grades of cutaneous and mucocutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and correlate with clinicopathological prognostic factors. Materials:Forty-eight specimens of cSCC were stained immunohistochemically with IGF-1R monoclonal antibody and correlated with different clinicopathologic factors.Results: All tumors showed a degree of positivity of IGF-1R cytoplasmic and membranous expression, however; with variable degrees. High grade tumors had significantly higher IGF-1R expression than low grade tumors. IGF-1R expression showed a strong positive correlation with the tumor grade (P<0.001). Also, IGF-1R expression showed a significant relation with the depth of invasion of SCC (P<0.001). Conclusion:IGF-1R expression is significantly associated with high grade in cutaneous and mucocutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and also associated with tumors showing deeper invasion; therefore, IGF-1R may have a role pathogenesis and progression of cutaneous and mucocutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.