Author(s)

Yu Koyama, Hiroshi Ichikawa, Jun Sakata, Eiko Sakata, Kumiko Tatsuda, Miki Hasegawa, Chie Toshikawa, Naoko Manba, Mayuko Ikarashi, Toshifumi Wakai

Division of Digestive & General Surgery, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical & Dental Sciences, Niigata, Japan.

Background: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the association between sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis and Ki67 labeling index and to elucidate whether Ki-67 was useful or not for prediction of SLN metastasis in breast cancer. Methods: We identified 343 invasive breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) from 2003 to 2012. The association between SLN status and clinicopathological features, molecular subtypes and Ki-67 labeling index were evaluated. Results: SLN metastasis was detected in 79 patients (23.0%). SLN metastasis was significantly associated with clinical T-stage (p = 0.0003), lymphovascular involvement (LVI) (p < 0.0001). Ki-67 labeling index of primary tumor was significantly lower in SLN positive patients (p = 0.0331), and Ki-67 cut-off point of 7.5% was useful for dividing SLN positive from negative (p = 0.0197). Conclusion: Low value of Ki-67 labeling index, in addition to progression of clinical T-stage and presence of LVI, is significantly associated with SLN metastasis, and it seems to be useful to consider Ki-67 labeling index for SLN metastasis prediction.

Breast Cancer; Sentinel Lymph Node; Molecular Subtypes; Ki-67 Labeling Index

Koyama, Y. , Ichikawa, H. , Sakata, J. , Sakata, E. , Tatsuda, K. , Hasegawa, M. , Toshikawa, C. , Manba, N. , Ikarashi, M. and Wakai, T. (2013) The Association between Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis and Ki-67 Labeling Index. Advances in Breast Cancer Research, 2, 60-65. doi: 10.4236/abcr.2013.23011.