Ki-67 expression and clinicopathological features of sarcomas.

Introduction: soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) are a rare heterogeneous disease, Ki-67 is a nuclear protein highly expressed in the proliferative state of somatic cycle. We studied the prognostic value of Ki-67 expression and its primary tumor characteristics in adult patients with extremity STSs. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively collected the clinical data of 40 patients with extremity STSs treated at Ain Shams university hospital from January 2010 to December 2012 and we correlated between Ki-67 expression by immunohistochemistry and the clinico-pathological data. We used a cut-off value of 20% for Ki-67 in tumor cells. The differences among variables were calculated by Chi-square test. Results': High Ki-67 expression (>20%) was found in 20% of cases (8/40) of. High Ki- 67 was significantly correlated with age > 50 years old (p < 0.002), grade (p < 0.023), local recurrence (p < 0.009) and distant metastasis (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that high Ki-67 expression was a significant independent prognostic factor for median DFS (12 months vs 4 months for low and high Ki-67 respectively with (P = <0.006, Cl 95% 7.87-14.13) and median OS was 28 months vs 10 months respectively (P = 0.001, Cl 95% 12.45-35.55). Conclusion: In our study we found that high expression of Ki-67 protein >20 % in extremity STSs, is frequently associated with poor prognosis, including the occurrence of distant metastases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]