Objective To detect the expression of β-catenin and survivin proteins in colorectal adenocarcinoma tissues of elderly patients, and investigate the correlation of their expression with gender, lymph node metastasis and tumor-lymph node-metastasis (TNM) stage. Methods A total of 50 colorectal adenocarcinoma patients who underwent surgical resection in our hospital from January 2015 to December 2017 were recruited in this study. The obtained specimens were divided into cancer tissue group (n=50) and normal tissue group (n=50,2 cm away from the edge of the colorectal cancer mass, with microscopically normal tissue structure). The expression of β-catenin and survivin were detected by immunohistochemistry. SPSS statistics 22.0 was used for data analysis. Mann-Whitney U rank test was employed for comparison between 2 groups. Spearman test was applied to analyze the correlation of protein expression between β-catenin and survivin. Results β-catenin was mainly expressed in the membrane, cytoplasm and nucleus of colorectal adenocarcinoma cells, and its expression level was significantly higher in cancer tissues than normal tissues (64.0% vs 0.0%, P<0.05). Its expression was not related to gender (P>0.05), but was to lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (P<0.001). Survivin was located in the nuclei of colorectal cancer cells, and its expression was markedly higher in the colorectal cancer tissues than normal tissues (54.0% vs 0.0%, P<0.001). Its level had correlation with lymphatic invasion (P<0.05) but not with gender and TNM stage (P>0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that the protein expression of β-catenin was positively correlated to that of survivin in the elderly patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma (r=0.645, P<0.001). Conclusion Both of β-catenin and survivinare involved in the occurrence and development of colorectal cancer in elderly patients, and they may jointly promote its progression.