Inverse correlation between Ki-67 expressIon and steroId receptors In patIents wIth breast carcInoma

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the immunohistochemical score of cell proliferation index Ki-67 and steroid receptors in patients with a pathohistological diagnosis of breast cancer. The impact of neoadjuvant therapy on biological markers in breast cancer remains controversial. Methods: All patients with invasive breast cancer, as the primary and only malignancy, who underwent surgical and neoadjuvant therapy at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of the Republic of Serbia (IORS) between 2017 and 2019 were included in the retrospective study. The expression level of Ki-67 and steroid receptors was detected by immunohistochemical analysis. Data were collected in an Excel database and analyzed in the statistical software SPSS program version 25. For statistical data processing Chi-squared test, KruskalWallis test, and Mann-Whitney U test were used. For all statistical analyses, a p <0.05 was considered statistically significant and a p≤0.001 was considered highly statistically significant. Results: The study included 190 patients with invasive breast cancer. The mean age of all patients at diagnosis was 57.2 ± 11.8 years. Among the patients, 64.2% are postmenopausal, 33.7% perimenopausal and 2.1% menopausal. There is a significant inverse correlation between the value of Ki-67 and the expression of steroid receptors. Conclusion: Ki-67 is an important biomarker in clinical practice for determining prognosis, residual risk, and response, and evaluating the effectiveness of neoadjuvant therapy. The results of our study revealed a correlation between high Ki-67 cell proliferative index values and lower steroid receptor expression values.