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The Role of Ki‐67 in Predicting Prognosis of Malignant Melanoma of the Vulva
Author(s) -
Reutter JC,
Hoang M,
Vollmer RT,
Groben PA,
Thomas DB,
Selim MA
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of cutaneous pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.597
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1600-0560
pISSN - 0303-6987
DOI - 10.1111/j.0303-6987.2005.320gc.x
Subject(s) - medicine , melanoma , lymph node , vulva , lymph , lymph node metastasis , metastasis , ki 67 , pathology , immunohistochemistry , logistic regression , oncology , cancer , cancer research
Background: Malignant melanoma of the vulva (MMV) accounts for 2% of all melanomas in women with 5‐year survival rate of 47%. Lymph node involvement predicts survival in these patients. Ki‐67 expression has been correlated with lymph node status in cutaneous melanomas. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether Ki‐67 correlates with lymph node metastasis in MMV. Methods: Histomorphology and clinical information of 25 MMV were reviewed. The database was divided in MMV with metastasis (M+) and without lymph node metastasis (M‐). A MMV subset was stained for Ki‐67 and scored as a percentage (7 patients M+ and 9 patients M‐). Results: The age range was 36–88 years‐old (mean 63 years‐old). The tumor thickness mean was 3.14 mm. The mean Ki‐67 expression was 23% for M‐ and 42.5% for M+(p = 0.07). Correlation of tumor thickness and Ki‐67 expression also has a p value of 0.07. Logistic regression analysis was obtained.Conclusions: This study shows that Ki‐67 expression is associated with lymph node metastasis in MMV. However, when Ki‐67 expression is compared to a classic prognostic indicator such as tumor thickness, it appears to have little or no additional predictive value. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results.