Background
In the Western world colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality, and the second most common cancer in women and the third in men. Identification of prognostic markers capable of predicting patient response to chemotherapy is essential to determine more personalised and efficient treatment strategies in colorectal cancer, and may help identify novel therapeutic targets. The aim of the study was to characterise the expression of the E2A transcriptional regulator proteins, E12/E47 (also known as TCF-3 or E2A) in colorectal cancer patient tissue samples. Primarily E12/E47 antibody optimisation was required to allow us to subsequently examine E12/E47 protein expression in colorectal cancer tissue and investigate any correlation with patient outcome.