Reshma Gopalakrishnan1, Freena Rose2, Jisha Kalathil Thodiyil3, Lovely Jose4
BACKGROUND
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in females. Triple negative breast
carcinomas (TNBC), one of the molecular subtypes of breast carcinoma, are not
sensitive to hormonal therapy and are reported to have aggressive behaviour. The
present study was done to evaluate the expression of Ki67 in triple negative breast
cancer using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and correlate the Ki67 expression with
other clinicopathological variables.
METHODS
Based on the IHC status (ER, PR, HER neu), 50 triple negative breast carcinoma
cases were selected from January 2019 to June 2020 for a cross-sectional study
in Department of Pathology, Government medical college Thrissur. Ki67
immunohistochemical staining was done on the tissue sections and the Ki67 score
was correlated with clinicopathological variables.
RESULTS
Of the 50 cases, majority (74 % cases) had high Ki67 expression (score of more
than 50 %). High Ki67 score was strongly associated with presence of
lymphovascular emboli (LVE) (P value < 0.05). Even though most of the patients
were above 50 years (72 %), no significant correlation was seen between age and
Ki67 score. The association with tumour size, histopathological type, tumour grade
and lymph node status were not statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONS
Ki67 expression was high in triple negative breast cancer with mean score of 62
%. High Ki67 score correlated with presence of LVE. High Ki67 would predict
increased proliferation of breast cancer cells and could be considered as a
prognostic marker.
