Relationship between the axillary lymph nodes metastases, histological grading and the expression of Ki-67 antigen in breast carcinomas

Objective: To study the relationship between axillary lymph nodes metastases,histological grade and the expression of Ki-67 antigen in breast cancer.Methods: Immunohistochemistry assay was used to study the expression of Ki-67 antigen in 108 patients with breast cancer.Results: The overexpression rate of Ki-67 antigen and the positive rate of c-erbB-2 in the positive axillary lymph nodes metastases group were higher than those in the negative group(P<0.005 and P<0.01).The overexpression rate of Ki-67 antigen and the positive rate of c-erbB-2 in the histological grade Ⅲ group were higher than those in the gradeⅡ group(P<0.005 and P<0.05).The positive rate of c-erbB-2 in the Ki-67 antigen overexpressed patients were significantly higher than that in the low expressed group(P<0.005).Conclusions: Overexpression of Ki-67 antigen may be one of the poor prognostic indexes for breast cancer.