ArticleArchives of gynecology and obstetrics2024
Relationship of Ki-67 index in biopsies of metastatic breast cancer tissue and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at the time of biopsy collection.
Article in Archives of gynecology and obstetrics, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical and histopathological characterization of metastatic lobular breast cancer: lessons learned from post-mortem tissue donation programs.NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Phytochemical Analysis and Evaluation of Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, Cytotoxic, and Immunomodulatory Activities of Commercial Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil (International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Circulating Tumor Cells in Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy, and Theranostics Applications: An Overview of Emerging Materials and Technologies.Current pharmaceutical design · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe proliferation marker Ki-67 is a major pathological feature for the description of the state of disease in breast cancer. It helps to define the molecular subtype and to stratify between therapy regimens in early breast cancer and helps to assess the therapy response. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a negative prognostic biomarker for progression free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Therefore, the CTC count is often described as surrogate for the tumor burden. Both, decrease of Ki-67 and CTC count are considered as evidence for therapy response. The presented work analyzed the correlation between the Ki-67 indices of metastatic tissue biopsies and CTC counts in biopsy time-adjacent peripheral blood samples. PATIENTS AND
methodsBlood samples from 70 metastatic breast cancer patients were obtained before the start of a new line of systemic therapy. CTCs were enumerated using CellSearch® (Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Bologna, Italy) whereas intact CTCs (iCTCs) and non-intact or apoptotic CTCs (aCTCs) were distinguished using morphologic criteria. The proportion of cells expressing Ki-67 was evaluated using immunohistochemistry on biopsies of metastases obtained concurrently with CTC sampling before the start of a new line of systemic therapy.
results65.7% of patients had a Ki-67 index of > 25%. 28.6% of patients had ≥ 5, 47.1% ≥ 1 iCTCs. 37.1% had ≥ 5, 51.4% ≥ 1 aCTCs. No correlation was shown between Ki-67 index and iCTC and aCTC count (r = 0.05 resp. r = 0.05, Spearman's correlation index). High CTC-counts did not coincide with high Ki-67 index. High Ki-67, ≥ 5 iCTCs and aCTCs are associated with poor progression free (PFS) and overall survival (OS).
conclusionCTCs and Ki-67 are independent prognostic markers in metastatic breast cancer. High Ki-67 in metastatic tumor tissue is not correlated to high iCTC or aCTC counts in peripheral blood.
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