Abstract: OBJECTIVE： To investigate relationships between expression of TNF-α and FOXA2 proteins in colorectal cancer tissues，and clinicopathologic indexes in the patients. METHODS： Thirty-nine cases of colorectal cancer and paired paracancer normal tissues (more than 5 cm from the tumor margin) were collected，and 42 cases of colorectal adenoma tissues which were confirmed by pathology and colonoscopy were selected. Immunohistochemistry was used to determine expression of TNF-α and FOXA2 proteins in colorectal tissue，using the Spearman method for evaluation. The Chi-square test was used to analyze relationships between the expression of TNF-α and FOXA2 protein，and clinicopathologic indexes in the colorectal cancer patients. RESULTS： The positive expression rates for the TNF-α protein in normal colorectal mucosa，colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer tissues were 23.08%，50% and 76.92%，respectively，and the differences among the groups were statistically significant. The positive expression rates for the FOXA2 protein in the three tissues were 23.08%，52.38% and 79.49%，respectively，and the differences were statistically significant. There were statistically significant differences in expressions of the TNF-α and of the FOXA2 proteins among different diameter and histological types of adenomas (P<0.05). In colorectal cancer tissues，there were statistically significant differences in TNF-α protein expression among different degrees of differentiation，depth of invasion，lymph node metastasis and TNM staging，while there were statistically significant differences in FOXA2 protein expression among different degrees of differentiation，lymph node metastasis and TNM staging (P<0.05). The expressions of TNF-α and FOXA2 were positively correlated with rs=0.475 (P<0.05). CONCLUSION： The positive expression rates of TNF-α and FOXA2 proteins were different in normal intestinal mucosa，colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer tissues，with gradually increasing trend，suggesting that TNF-α and FOXA2 proteins were closely related to the occurrence and development of colorectal cancers. Higher positive expression rates of TNF-α were associated with worse tumor differentiation，deeper depth of invasion，higher rates of lymph node metastasis and later TNM stages. The strong associations suggest that TNF-α protein played a promoting role in the occurrence and development of colorectal cancers. Similarly，higher the FOXA2 positive expression rates were associated with worse tumor differentiation，higher lymph node metastasis rates and later TNM stages，suggesting that FOXA2 protein was also involved with the occurrence and development of colorectal cancers.

Key words: colorectal cancer, colorectal adenoma, tumor necrosis factor, forkhead box protein A2