Fig. 1

beta Catenin (a), CD44 (b) and CD133 (c) immunopositivity served to sub-define primary tumors that had either spread to the peritoneum or to the liver: Presence of a stem cell like phenotype as defined by beta Catenin (a), CD44 (b) and/or CD133 (c) high immunopositivity was found to characterize primary tumors that spread to the liver, while absence of a stem cell like immuno-phenotype was characteristic for CRC metastasized to the peritoneum [5]. The current analysis selected 23 cases (n (LM) = 10, n (PER) = 10, n (M0) = 3) from the study panel previously investigated by Neumann et al. for further characterization including miRNA analysis. Presence of a stem cell phenotype (βCat^high and CD44^high and/or CD133^high) in LM samples and absence of this stem cell classifier in PER and M0 samples was highly reproducible in the sub-sample analyzed in the current study (d). The stem cell phenotype was much rarer in PER (p = 0.001) and M0 (p = 0.003) than in LM samples. Significant changes are indicated by stars (*) in (d)