Immunohistochemical study on the prognostic value of MIB-1 in gastric carcinoma

The prognostic significance of tumour cell proliferation was investigated in a series of 418 gastric carcinomas using the monoclonal antibody MIB-1. Owing to strong intratumoural heterogeneity of MIB-1 expression three different proliferation indices (PIs) were determined in all carcinomas: (1) PImax in areas of maximal tumour cell proliferation, (2) PIrand in areas randomly distributed over the whole tumour. (3) PIfront in areas exclusively located at the tumour invasion front. There was a strong intertumoral heterogeneity with PImax ranging from 4.9% to 92.2%, PIrand ranging from 3.4% to 81.4% and PIfront ranging from 4.2% to 87.1%. The mean values were 51.3% +/- 19.7 for PImax, 34.2% +/- 18.3 for PIrand and 37.2% +/- 19.5 for PIfront. Whereas no statistically significant correlation could be found between proliferative activity and the clinicopathological parameters depth of invasion, lymph node involvement or grade of tumour differentiation, there was a positive correlation between a high proliferation index at the tumour invasion front (PIfront) and the presence of blood or lymphatic vessel invasion. No significant correlation could be demonstrated between the different proliferation indices and survival, even when different subgroups of patients were analysed separately. The present results suggest that the immunohistochemical evaluation of the proliferation activity has no predictive value for the prognosis of gastric cancer patients or the identification of subgroups of patients who may be at higher risk.