However, in contrast to BAX, Bcl-2 expression alone was not observed to be prognostically useful in stage III colon cancer, which is in line with previous reports on the prognostic significance of Bcl-2 in adjuvantly treated non-metastatic colorectal cancer (Tollenaar et al, 1998; Garrity et al, 2004). This evidence concerns the gene BCL2 and malignant colon neoplasm.