Evaluation of Involvement of Axillary Lymph Nodes with Ki-67 Expression in Patients with Breast Cancer

Background: Breast cancer is the first leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Ki-67 is being used for evaluation of the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Objectives: The aim of the current study was to explore the association of the involvement of axillary lymph nodes status with the expression of Ki-67 in patients with breast cancer. Methods: A total of 449 patients were enrolled followed by evaluation of the association of Ki67 levels with demographic, pathologic, and survival data of patients, using Chi-square, logistic regression models, student t test and Mann-Whitney. Results: We observed a significant relationship between the expression level of Ki-67 and stage of tumor (P = 0.012), positive progesterone receptor (P = 0.003), and subtype pathologic features (P < 0.05). Also, a significant difference was detected between Her2 and expression level of Ki-67 (P = 0.015). Survival analysis showed the association for Ki-67 (P = 0.02), age (P = 0.005), stage of tumor (P < 0.05), lymph node involvement (P = 0.001), and the Her2 (P = 0.024) with clinical outcome (e.g., overall survival or disease free survival) of patients with breast cancer. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that the overexpression of Ki-67 was associated with large tumors, progesterone receptor expression, and stage of tumor, but it was not related with lymph node involvement.