Increased proliferation activity measured by immunoreactive Ki67 is associated with survival improvement in rectal/recto sigmoid cancer

Table 1 Patient characteristics.

	Number of patients (%)
Total number of eligible patients	146 (100)
Sex
Male	87 (60)
Female	59 (40)
Age (yr)
Mean	66
Range	3686
Performance status (WHO)
0	11 (15)
1	53 (72)
2	10 (14)
Tumor histology
Grade 1	24 (16)
Grade 2	89 (61)
Grade 3	33 (23)
Tumor localization
Rectum	125 (86)
Recto sigmoid	21 (14)
T stage
T1	6 (4)
T2	26 (18)
T3	94 (64)
T4	20 (14)
Dukes
A	26 (18)
B	85 (58)
C	25 (17)
D	10 (7)
N stage
0	98 (67)
1	26 (18)
2	22 (15)
Primary tumor	135 (93)
Recurrent tumor	11 (8)
Radiotherapy
Given to N patients (%)	91 (62)
Median dose (range) Gy1	50 (4867)

¹One patient treated only to 25 Gy.

Table 2 Association of Ki67 expression with N-stage, Dukes and presence of hot spot areas in rectal cancer.

	Ki67 expression		P
	≤40	>40
	n (%)	n (%)
N-stage			0.020
0	50 (63)	48 (73)
1	12 (15)	14 (21)
2	18 (23)	4 (6)
Dukes			0.012
1	9 (11)	17 (26)
2	53 (66)	32 (48)
3	10 (13)	15 (23)
4	8 (10)	2 (3)
Hot spot			<0.001
≤50	65 (81)	10 (15)
>50	15 (19)	56 (85)

Table 3 Cox univariate and multivariate regression analysis.

Variable	Univariate analysis		Multivariate analysis
	HR (95%CI)	P	HR (95%CI)	P
Age (>65 vs <65 yr)	1.54 (0.99-2.39)	0.056	1.62 (1.04-2.52)	0.035
T-stage (3+4 vs 1+2)	2.24 (1.21-4.23)	0.010	1.61 (0.86-3.03)	0.139
N-stage (1+2+3 vs 0)	2.42 (1.57-3.74)	<0.001	1.82 (1.12-2.94)	0.015
Dukes (4 vs 1+2+3)	11.42 (5.342-4.43)	<0.001	6.32 (2.781-4.39)	<0.001
Ki67 (>40 vs ≤40)	0.63 (0.41-0.98)	0.040	1.26 (0.67-2.39)	0.469
Ki67 Hot spot (>50 vs ≤50)	0.48 (0.31-0.75)	0.001	0.51 (0.27-0.98)	0.044