Abstract
Purpose
The present study retrospectively examines the expression of pKi-67 mRNA and protein in colorectal carcinoma and their correlation to the outcome of patients.
Methods
Immunohistochemistry and quantitative RT-PCR were used to analyze the expression of pKi-67 in 43 archival specimens of patients with curatively resected primary colorectal carcinoma, who were not treated with neo-adjuvant therapy.
Results
We determined a median pKi-67 (MIB-1) labeling index of 31.3% (range 10.3–66.4%), and a mean mRNA level of 0.1769 (ΔCT: range 0.01–0.69); indices and levels did not correlate. High pKi-67 mRNA ΔCT values were associated with a significantly favorable prognosis, while pKi-67 labeling indices were not correlated to prognostic outcome. A multivariate analysis of clinical and biological factors indicated that tumor stage (UICC) and pKi-67 mRNA expression level were independent prognostic factors.
Conclusion
Quantitatively determined pKi-67 mRNA can be a good and new prognostic indicator for primary resected colorectal carcinoma.
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Acknowledgements. We thank J. Gerdes (Research Centre, Borstel, Germany) and his group for kindly supplying us with MIB-1; Mrs. G. Grosser-Pape, R. Kaatz, A. Aumueller, E. Gheribi, and V. Grobleben for excellent technical assistance in the Surgical Research Laboratory; Mrs. C. Killaitis, Surgical Clinic, and Dr. A. Fröhlich, Institute for Biometry and Statistics, University of Lübeck, for provision and statistical evaluation of the data. Last but not least, we thank all colleagues of our clinic for helping to collect surgical material and our colleagues in the laboratory. Parts of this contribution are components of the thesis of T. Ihmann.
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Ihmann, T., Liu, J., Schwabe, W. et al. High-level mRNA quantification of proliferation marker pKi-67 is correlated with favorable prognosis in colorectal carcinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 130, 749–756 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-004-0612-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-004-0612-5