Role of Ki67 in breast carcinoma and its association with clinicopathological parameters and luminal subtypes in a tertiary health care center

Abstract

Introduction & Objectives: In clinical practice, the evaluation of the breast tumour proliferative fraction is of important for the treatment decision, which is commonly performed by the immunohistochemical staining of a proliferation marker, the Ki67 antigen. The main objective of the current study was to analyze and evaluate the associations between Ki-67 and common histopathological parameters and luminal subtypes in the routine clinical setting. Materials and Methods: A total of seventy cases were enrolled in the study. The surgical specimens were evaluated and histopathological reporting was done according to College of American Pathologists (CAP) guidelines. Suitable blocks were selected and immunostaining was performed with ER, PR, Her2/neu and Ki67 markers. The association between the Ki-67 and histopathological parameters [age, histological type, nuclear grade, tumor size, multifocality, an in situ component, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) expression, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER-2) status, axillary involvement and tumor stage] were evaluated in each group. The data thus obtained was analyzed by SPSS-20 software with chi square test. Results: The intended age of presentation in the current study was 48.6613.05 years and most common histological type was invasive ductal carcinoma of no special type (IDC-NST). Tumor size was found to have an association with Ki67 expression status with significant p value (0.003), were as tumor grade and pT category did not find any significant association with Ki67 expression. Luminal subtypes and ki67 expression status was seen to have an association with significant p value. Conclusion: Ki67 was considered as important marker to predict the prognosis for better management of breast cancer patients. Keywords: Histopathological parameters, immunohistochemistry, proliferation marker.