Ki-67 status in patients with primary breast cancer and its relationship with other prognostic factors

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women and is the second most common cause of fatality in patients with cancer in the world. Cell proliferation plays an important role in the clinical behavior of invasive BC. We aimed to assess the status of Ki-67 in patients with primary breast cancer and evaluate the association of this tumor marker with other clinico-pathologic and prognostic factors.
 Methods: The current study recruited 220 patients with primary BC admitted to the oncology clinic of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. We evaluated Ki-67 IHC slides and reported the Ki-67 status and its relationship with other prognostic factors in breast cancer patients. Among 220 patients, 63.3% developed grade 2 tumors, and 63.8% were younger than 50-year-olds. 117 cases (53%) were Ki-67 positive with more than 1% tumor nuclei stained, and 53 cases (24%) had tumors with more than 15% of Ki-67 expression.
 Results: There was no correlation between Ki-67 and patient's age (Spearman rho = 0.375, tau Kendall = 0.374), tumor size (Spearman rho = 0.558, tau Kendall = 0.548) and grade (Spearman rho = 0.570, tau Kendall = 0.568), however, there was a marginally significant relationship between lymph node status and Ki-67 expression (Spearman rho = 0.077, tau Kendall = 0.079). Based on the Mann -Whitney test, there was a significant correlation between the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) with Ki-67.
 Conclusion: A reliable estimation of different prognostic factors in BC patients is required for the selection of an optimal therapeutic strategy. The attention has been focused on the markers of tumor biology.

The Potential Role of Ki-67 Index in the Prognosis of Breast Cancer and Its Relation to Molecular Subtypes in Egyptian Females with Breast Cancer

“…Ki-67 levels showed no significant correlation with the patient's age, while they showed significant correlation with tumor size, node staging, the histopathological grade and NPI values. It was reported that the Ki-67 high levels show significant association with poor prognosis, short survival, and high mortality rate [14,15,16]. None of the previous studies, to the best of our knowledge, has revealed that Ki-67 is significantly correlated with patient's age, which is in concordance with this study [14,17].…”

“…It was reported that the Ki-67 high levels show significant association with poor prognosis, short survival, and high mortality rate [14,15,16]. None of the previous studies, to the best of our knowledge, has revealed that Ki-67 is significantly correlated with patient's age, which is in concordance with this study [14,17]. Few studies concluded the Ki-67 significant correlation with tumor histopathological grade [18,19,20].…”

“…Also, some studies concluded that Ki-67 was significantly positively correlated with tumor size, in which, lower Ki-67 levels are associated with smaller tumors [24]. However, in other studies, there was no significant correlation between Ki-67 and tumor grade [14].…”

Assessment of the Prognostic Role of Ki-67 and Its Optimal Cutoff Value in Early Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Analysis

“…However, many studies demonstrated the reverse; with a positive correlation between Ki-67 and both 4 . Kremani et al found a marginal significant relationship between lymph node status and Ki-67 expression 8 .…”

Características clínico patológicas del cáncer de mama asociadas a la expresión del marcador celular Ki-67 en el Hospital Nacional Edgardo Rebagliati Martins, 2013-2017

“…La extensión de la enfermedad hacia los ganglios axilares sigue siendo el determinante más importante de sobrevida. En nuestro estudio no fue la excepción, encontrando relación directa y significativa con el Ki-67; así, mientras mayor número de ganglios axilares comprometidos se identificaron, mayor fue el porcentaje de expresión del Ki-67 (11) .…”