Expression of Ki-67 by monoclonal antibody MIB-1 in carcinoma of the middle and lower bile duct.

To evaluate the relationship between cell proliferation and clinical outcome of bile duct carcinoma, MIB-1 immunohistochemistry and clinicopathological study were performed in 21 patients who underwent resection of carcinoma of the middle and lower bile duct. Some histological factors, especially pancreatic infiltration affected survivals. MIB-1 scores (percentages of MIB-1 positive cells) tended to be higher in the patients who died within three years after operations than in the group that survived over three years. No relationship was observed between MIB-1 scores and histological tumor spread. These results suggest that MIB-1 scores may be useful to predict the clinical outcome of the patients with carcinoma of the bile duct, independently of histological tumor spread.