Detecting colon cancer in human tissues, LM

Fluorescence immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy were used to image normal (left) and cancerous (right) human colon tissue samples. Both samples were stained for the presence of protein biomarkers (QuiPCaMs), which are being researched in order to improve cancer diagnosis and prognosis. The presence of three different proteins, all biomarkers of cancer, was simultaneously detected using a different fluorescent marker (green, blue, red) for each. What appears to be a symmetrical pattern in normal tissue becomes more irregular in the tissue sample with disease. Each circle (whole tissue core) is 0.6 mm in diameter.