MIB- 1 in Advance d Ovaria n Cance r Usin g Quantitativ e Imag e Analysi s

'' 1 A new monoclonal antibody, MIB-1, reacts with the same epitope recog­ nized by Ki-67. The authors investigated the feasibility of using image analysis to quantitate the MIB-1 staining (proliferation index [PI]) of epithelial ovarian cancers. The PI was determined in 50 advanced-stage primary ovarian cancers. Paraffin sections were immunostained with the MIB-1 monoclonal antibody, and the PI was calculated using a CAS 200® image analyzer. Among 36 stage III ovarian carcinomas, the median PI was 15.1%, compared with 18.9% in 14 stage IV cancers (P = .47). Based on exploratory methods, a cutoff point of 7% best dichoto­ mized these patients into two prognostic groups. Of 39 patients whose cancers had a high MIB-1 expression (a 7%), the median survival was Several clinicopathologic variables influence prognosis in epi­ thelial ovarian cancer, including stage, histologic grade, and the extent of surgical cytoreduction. In addition, more recent stud­ ies of oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes have enhanced our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of these ma­ lignancies. Consideration of these factors may allow individual­ ization of postoperative treatment, particularly in early-stage disease. Unfortunately, the majority of ovarian cancers are ad­ vanced at the time of diagnosis, and overall survival in these patients is poor. In our laboratory, we have performed preliminary studies using static image analysis to quantitate Ki-67 monoclonal an­ tibody (DAKO, Santa Barbara, CA) immunostaining in freshfrozen ovarian cancer.' Percentages of expression equal to and above 7.5% correlated significantly with a decreased survival (P < .01). Proliferation index (PI) in fresh-frozen tissues has been shown to correlate with prognosis and other known clinico­ pathologic features in several types of cancer, including tumors of the lymphatic system, 2 lung, 3 central nervous system, 4 and breast. 5 " 8