Associations Between PET Parameters and Expression of Ki-67 in Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVES: Numerous studies investigated relationships between positron emission tomography and proliferation index Ki-67 in breast cancer (BC) with inconsistent results. The aim of the present analysis was to provide evident data about associations between standardized uptake value (SUV) and expression of Ki-67 in BC. METHODS: MEDLINE library, SCOPUS and EMBASE data bases were screened for relationships between SUV and Ki-67 in BC up to April 2018. Overall, 32 studies with 1802 patients were identified. The following data were extracted from the literature: authors, year of publication, number of patients, and correlation coefficients. Associations between SUV and Ki-67 were analyzed by Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Associations between SUVmax derived from 18F-FDG PET and Ki-67 were reported in 25 studies (1624 patients). The pooled correlation coefficient was 0.40, (95% CI = [0.34; 0.46]). Furthermore, 7 studies analyzed associations between SUVmax derived from 18F-fluorthymidin (FLT) PET and Ki-67 (178 patients). The pooled correlation coefficient was 0.54, (95% CI = [0.37; 0.70]). CONCLUSION: SUVmax correlated moderately with expression of Ki-67 and, therefore, cannot be used as a surrogate marker for tumor proliferation. Further studies are needed to evaluate associations between PET parameters and histopathological findings like hormone receptor status in breast cancer.