Abstract: ObjectiveTo investigate the expression of Six1 and FOXC2 in colon cancer and the relationship between their expression and  the occurrence， development and metastasis of colon cancer. MethodsThe immunohistochemical method was used to determine the expression of Six1 and FOXC2 in 70 cases of colon cancer and 30 cases of adjacent normal tissues. The correlation between the two proteins and colon cancer process and the pathological features of colon cancer were explored. ResultsThe expression of Six1 and FOXC2 in colon cancer were significantly higher than those in adjacent normal tissues (82.9% vs 16.7% and  74.3% vs  20.0%，respectively，P<0.05）. Both proteins were positively correlated with colon adenocarcinoma（r=-0.426，P<0.01）. The expression of the two kinds of proteins were related with the TNM staging of tumor， depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis（P<0.05），no association was observed with patients' age， gender， tumor size and histological grading (P>0.05). ConclusionSix1 and FOXC2 were overexpressed in colon cancer. They may play important roles in carcinogenesis and progression of colon cancer and a positive correlation was shown between them， suggesting that the expression of  two proteins may be closely associated with poor prognosis in colon cancer.

Key words:  , colonic neoplasms；homeodomain proteins；forkhead transcription factors； immunohistochemistry