A linkage between effectual genes in progression of CRC through canonical and non-canonical TGF-β signaling pathways.

Different molecular signaling pathways have been involved in the incidence and progression of CRC. We aimed to examine the correlation between eight candidate genes, including TFGβ, SMAD2, SMAD4, RhoA, EGFR, MAP2K1, MTA1, and LEF1 in the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) and their association with clinicopathological variables and CRC patients prognosis. Immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis 2, were performed to assess the expression of eight genes in 64 and 122 patients with CRC, respectively and 20 normal samples were added for verification.