1Post graduate student,
2Professor and HOD,
3Professor,
4Associate Professor,
In light of surgical advances leading to breast-conserving therapy, it has become necessary to more accurately stratify patients based on relative risk of recurrence or progression. These demands have led to the generation of several newer classification systems that incorporate molecular markers such as estrogen and progesterone receptor(ER, PR) and Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(Her2/neu or ErbB2). Status of these markers helps determine which patients are likely to respond to targeted therapies. Recently Ki67, a proliferative marker has been recognised as an important predictive and prognostic marker in many studies.
50 histologically confirmed female breast cancer patients in the age group of 18–80 years were recruited. Information on patient's age, menopausal status, disease stage, clinical nodes were noted from the case files. The histopathological grading of the breast carcinoma was done according to the Nottingham modification of the Bloom Richardson grading system. IHC (Immunohistochemistry) was performed by using antibodies against the ER, PR, Her2neu, and Ki67.
ER PR expression was seen to be decreased with increase in Ki67 positivity. Ki67 proliferation index when correlated with the various clinicopathological parameters (grade, lymph node metastasis and size of tumor) it was concluded that as the Ki67 positivity increased the prognosis became poorer.
Breast cancer, Ki67, Her-2/neu, biomarkers, tumor markers