Immunohistochemical expression of SP-NK-1R-EGFR pathway and VDR in colonic inflammation and neoplasia

Figure 1 Histologic images depicting stages in the colitis-dysplasia-cancer progression of colitis-associated cancer. A: Colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC) is thought to arise through the chronic colitis-dysplasia-carcinoma sequence; B: Examples of immunohistochemistry scoring for phosphorylated epidermal growth factor receptor (pEGFR; top row) and vitamin D receptor (VDR; bottom row). A score of 0 indicates minimal or absent staining, whereas a score of 3 indicates strongest staining for a particular antibody. For pEGFR, the pictures scored as 0, 1, 2, and 3 correspond to tissues with a diagnosis of normal, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), sporadic dysplasia, and sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC), respectively. For VDR, the pictures scored as 0, 1, 2, and 3 correspond to tissues with a diagnosis of sporadic dysplasia, sporadic colorectal cancer, IBD, and normal, respectively. Scale bars = 100 μm.