PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nirmala Pathmanathan
AU  - Rosemary L Balleine
TI  - Ki67 and proliferation in breast cancer
AID  - 10.1136/jclinpath-2012-201085
DP  - 2013 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Clinical Pathology
PG  - 512--516
VI  - 66
IP  - 6
4099  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/66/6/512.short
4100  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/66/6/512.full
SO  - J Clin Pathol2013 Jun 01; 66
AB  - New approaches to the prognostic assessment of breast cancer have come from molecular profiling studies. A major feature of this work has been to emphasise the importance of cancer cell proliferation as a key discriminative indicator of recurrence risk for oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer in particular. Mitotic count scoring, as a component of histopathological grade, has long formed part of a routine evaluation of breast cancer biology. However, there is an increasingly compelling case to include a specific proliferation score in breast cancer pathology reports based on expression of the cell cycle regulated protein Ki67. Immunohistochemical staining for Ki67 is a widely available and economical test with good tolerance of pre-analytical variations and staining conditions. However, there is currently no evidence based protocol established to derive a reliable and informative Ki67 score for routine clinical use. In this circumstance, pathologists must establish a standardised framework for scoring Ki67 and communicating results to a multidisciplinary team.