Ki-67 Expression in Gastric Cancer and Correlation with Clinico-Pathological Characteristics

Background: The characteristics of the cellular kinetic reflect the aggressiveness of the tumors and even their prognosis, many studies proving the correlation between the increased proliferation activity and a poor prognosis in a variety of neoplasms. Aim: The analysis of immunohistochemical Ki-67 expression in 55 patients with gastric cancer, the correlation with clinico-pathological factors and patients prognosis. Patient and Methods: Our study included 55 cases of gastric adenocarcinomas, we analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of the marking index Ki-67 antigen using the MIB1 monoclonal antibody, following the correlations with various clinicopathological factors (gender and age of patients, location, macroscopic type, histological type, degree of tumor differentiation and the TNM staging). For a proper grouping of the results, we classified gastric carcinomas into two categories: adenocarcinomas with high Ki-67 score (≥20%) and adenocarcinomas with low Ki-67 score (<20%). Results: We observed a close correlation between the TNM stage and the Ki-67 score. The results of our study do not reveal any correlation between the Lauren’s Classification of gastric adenocarcinomas, degree of differenciation, the lymphonodular invasion, the depth of tumor invasion and the Ki-67 score (p>0.05). Conclusion: In our study, high scores of Ki-67 are found in advanced TNM stages. Consequently, Ki-67 may be useful in identifying a group of patients with aggressive tumors.