Objective To explore the expressions of caudal-related homeodomain transcription factor-2 （CDX-2）and tumor suppressor gene KAI-1 in colon carcinoma tissues and to analyze their clinical significances. Methods Immu-nohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expressions of CDX-2 and KAI-1 in 50 cases of colon carcinoma tissues and corresponding adjacent tissues （from cancer tissue ≤2cm） and 25 cases of normal colon mucosa tissues. The relation-ships of the expressions of CDX-2 and KAI-1 to the clinicopathologic features were analyzed. Results ①The positive rates of CDX-2 expression and KAI-1 expression in the colon carcinoma tissues were significantly lower than those in the normal colon mucosa tissues 〔CDX-2：34% （17/50） versus 88% （22/25）， P＜0.05；KAI-1：30% （15/50） versus 92% （23/25）， P＜0.05〕 and adjacent tissues of colon carcinoma 〔CDX-2：34% （17/50） versus 54% （27/50）， P＜0.05；KAI-1：30% （15/50） versus 58% （29/50）， P＜0.05〕， which in the adjacent tissues of colon carcinoma were significantly lower than those in the normal colon mucosa tissues （P＜0.05）. ②The positive expressions of CDX-2 and KAI-1 were related to lymph node metastasis， depth of invasion， and degree of tumor differentiation （P＜0.05）. ③Spearman rank correl-ation analysis showed that the CDX-2 expression was positively correlated with KAI-1 expression （rs=0.544， P＜0.01）. Conclusions CDX-2 and KAI-1 may be closely related to the development， invasion， metastasis， and prognosis of colon carcinoma， the combination of CDX-2 and KAI-1 in evaluation of their function has a certain guiding significance in the treatment for colon carcinoma.
