Low Ki-67 proliferation index is an indicator of poor prognosis in gastric cancer

✍ Scribed by Hee Eun Lee; Min A Kim; Byung Lan Lee; Woo Ho Kim

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 219 KB
• Volume: 102
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4790
• DOI: 10.1002/jso.21583

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background and Objectives

We designed this study to assess the biologic significance of Ki‐67 proliferation index (PI) in gastric cancer.

Methods

Gastric cancer tissue from 245 patients were immunostained for Ki‐67. Ki‐67 PI was defined as the percentage of tumor cells positive for Ki‐67. In addition, we have previously evaluated the expressions of nine epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT)‐related proteins. The relationship between Ki‐67 PI and clinicopathologic parameters, patient survival, and EMT data were sought.

Results

Low Ki‐67 PI was correlated with poorly differentiated histology (P = 0.034), an advanced T stage (P < 0.001), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.011). Also, the low PI group was found to have a significantly worse prognosis than the high PI group (P = 0.003, log‐rank test). Multivariate analysis revealed that Ki‐67 PI remained as an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio (95% CI) = 0.670 (0.450–0.999)). Furthermore, greater expressional changes of EMT‐related proteins were found to be significantly associated with low Ki‐67 PI (P = 0.025).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that Ki‐67 PI is an effective tool for predicting survival in gastric cancer. In addition, we found that an invasive property presented as EMT‐related protein expressional changes was inversely correlated with a proliferative activity in gastric cancer. J. Surg. Oncol. 2010;102:201–206. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.