Abstract
Ki-67 is a nuclear antigen that is expressed in all stages of the cell cycle, except G0, and is widely used as a marker of cellular proliferation in human tumors. We recently showed that elevated levels of Ki-67 circulating in plasma (cKi-67) are associated with shorter survival in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The current study included 194 patients with CLL and 96 healthy control subjects. cKi-67 levels in plasma were determined using an electrochemiluminescent immunoassay. We normalized the cKi-67 level to the absolute number of lymphocytes in the patient's peripheral blood to establish the plasma cKi-67 index. The cKi-67 index showed significant correlation with lymph node involvement and Rai stage (P=0.05). Higher cKi-67 index values were significantly associated with shorter survival. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis demonstrated that the association of the cKi-67 index with shorter survival was independent of IgVH mutation status. In a multivariate model incorporating the cKi-67 index with B2M and IgVH, only cKi-67 index and B2M levels remained as independent predictors of survival. The results of this study suggest that the plasma cKi-67 index, along with B2M level, is a strong predictor of clinical behavior in CLL.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1320-1324 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Leukemia Research |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2010 |
Keywords
- CKi-67 index
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
- Plasma
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Hematology
- Oncology
- Cancer Research