To examine the relationship between subsets of colorectal polyps and non-mucinous and mucinous adenocarcinomas of the colorectum, we evaluated the frequency of the expression of cell lineage associated mucin core proteins (MUC5AC and MUC2), trefoil factors (TFF1 and TFF3), and APC and p21 in these tissues.
APC inactivation and K-ras mutations occurred more frequently in NMC (APC, 88%, p<0.001; K-ras, 58%, p=0.01) than in MC (APC, 24%; K-ras, 28%) regardless of MSI status.