Ki-67 and grading of malignant fibrous histiocytomas.

Although generally considered to be of high grade, malignant fibrous histiocytomas (MFH) show a range of histologic appearances and a diverse biologic behavior. More precise grading of this type of sarcoma is desirable. The rate of cell proliferation may reflect clinical behavior. A more sensitive measure of cell proliferation is the expression of the Ki-67 antigen. Frozen sections were prepared from 29 cases of MFH. Sections were immunohistochemically stained for Ki-67, and the results were quantitated by image analysis (CAS 100). The Spearman rank correlation test was used to compare the extent of the Ki-67 staining with the conventional histologic grade, nuclear grade, number of mitoses, extent of necrosis, and overall cellularity. There was a significant correlation between the extent of Ki-67 staining and the nuclear grade (cc = 0.56; P = 0.002) and overall histologic grade (correlation coefficient = 0.58; P = 0.001), but there was no significant, independent correlation between Ki-67 and prognosis.