Abstract: Objective To explore the role of Wnt／β-catenin signalling pathway in the maintenance， invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer stem cells. Methods Double immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of EpCAM^high／CD44⁺which was regarded as the marker of colorectal cancer stem cells in 80 cases of colorectal cancer and 10 corresponding liver metastases. The SP method of immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of the key protein β-catenin in the Wnt pathway in these tissues mentioned before. The expression and correlation of β-catenin and EpCAM／CD44 in colorectal cancer were analyzed and their roles in the biological behavior of colorectal cancer were analyzed. Results The abnormal expression of β-catenin in colorectal cancer was 55.0％（44／80），significantly higher than 10％（2／20）in the paraneoplastic normal intestinal mucosa（P＜0.05）.The positive expression of EpCAM／CD44 in colorectal cancer was 66.3％（53／80），which was higher than 0 in the paraneoplastic normal intestinal mucosa. In the 80 cases of colorectal cancer， the abnormal expression of β-catenin has no correlation with gender， age and the magnitude of the tumor（P＞0.05）， but it was significantly correlated with degree of differentiation， depth of invasion， clinical stage and metastasis（P＜0.05）. In the colorectal cancer， the expression of EpCAM^high／CD44⁺ cells had no correlation with gender and the magnitude of the tumor（P＞0.05）， but it was significantly correlated with age， degree of differentiation， depth of invasion， clinical stage and metastasis（P＜0.05）. In the corresponding liver metastases， EpCAM^high／CD44⁺ cells were detected too. In cases with abnormal expression of β-catenin， the positive expression rate of EpCAM／CD44 was significantly higher than those with normal expression of β-catenin（84.1％ vs. 44.4％）， and the difference was statistically significant（P＜0.05）. Positive correlation could be found between the expressions of β-catenin and EpCAM^high／CD44⁺（r=0.417, P=0.000）. Conclusion The abnormal activation of Wnt／β-catenin signalling pathway may prompt the abnormal proliferation of the colorectal cancer stem cells， which leads to the recurrence and metastasis of the cancer.