Ki-67 Archives

Tag: Ki-67

The expression of antigen Ki67 is strongly associated with tumour cell proliferation and growth, and is widely used in routine pathological investigation as a proliferation marker. The nuclear protein Ki67 (pKi67) is an established prognostic and predictive indicator for the assessment of biopsies from patients with cancer. It’s therefore an excellent marker to determine the growth fraction of a given cell population. The fraction of Ki-67-positive tumour cells (the Ki-67 labelling index) is often correlated with the clinical course of cancer. Pathologists normally need to count about a thousand cells in order to determine the percentage of cells that are Ki67 positive – thus why you see Ki67 expressed as a percentage. 0% is the lowest, 100% is the highest. Often, they add greater or less than signs depending on the sample involved, i.e. >5% or <5%. There are other measurement systems in place, mainly Mitotic Count which tends to be more frequently used for Lung NENs. The Ki-67 index can usually be determined, even in cases of small biopsies but Mitotic rate counting requires a moderate amount of tumour tissue (at least 50 HPFs or 10 mm) and may not be feasible for small biopsies.

27 Mar 2026

By Ronny Allan

0 Comments

Understanding Differentiation, Ki‑67, Mitotic Count, Hotspots, Pathology Workflow, and Primary–Metastasis Heterogeneity in Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs)

Patient Advocacy, TreatmentDifferentiation, Heterogeneity, Ki-67, Mitotic count, Pathology, Pathology hotspots, Pathology workflow

Before you read this… This article discusses pathology concepts such as Ki-67, grading, heterogeneity, and biopsy findings in neuroendocrine tumours (NETs). It is provided for educational purposes only and does not interpret any individual pathology report or scan result. Ki-67 values, tumour grade, and sampling limitations can vary between different biopsies and over time. Their meaning depends on the full clinical context, including imaging, symptoms, and multidisciplinary review. Only your own specialist team can explain what your specific Ki-67, grade, or pathology findings mean for you. No treatment decisions should be made based on this article alone. Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs)…

20 Feb 2025

By Ronny Allan

18 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer: Nodes, Nodules, Lesions (and false alarms!)

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship, The NET Effect Series, TreatmentAdvanced neuroendocrine cancer, Axillary nodes, Carcinoid syndrome, Carcinoid tumour, Distant metastatis, Hypothyroidism, Ki-67, Levothyroxine, Lung nodule, Lymphadenectomy, Lymphatic system, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, Neuroendocrine, Neuroendocrine cancer, Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Nodule, Octreoscan (Octreotide scan), Quality of LIfe (QoL), Sternoclavicular joint, Supraclavicularfossa (SCF) lymph nodes, Surgery, Thyroid cancer

A fairly common disposition of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms is a primary with associated local/regional secondary's (e.g. lymph nodes), and often with liver metastases. Technically speaking, the liver is distant. However, many metastatic patients appear to have additional and odd appearances in even more distant places, including (but not limited to) the extremities and the head & neck. Certain things are known about the behaviour of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs) (a term for Neuroendocrine Tumours and Neuroendocrine Carcinoma) and specialists will be analysing many factors when working out the type of NEN and how it might behave. This is useful in cases of…

03 Oct 2024

By Ronny Allan

5 Comments

A spotlight on Grade 3 (High grade) Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

A spotlight on NENs - Types, Awareness, Patient AdvocacyBlue Book, Differentiation, Grading, High grade neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN), High grade neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Ki-67, Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), MANEC, Merkel cell carcinoma, Mixed Neuroendocrine Non-Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (MiNEN), Molecular markers, Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), Neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN), Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Poorly differentiated, Small cell lung cancer (SCLC), Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SCNEC), Somatostatin receptors (SSTR), Well differentiated

Reviewed and updated 3rd Jan 2025 High Grade Neuroendocrine Neoplasms - the forgotten patient group? When reading articles in the mainstream media, found in medical publications; and even listening to doctors speak about my disease, it's clear that the focus is on the term "Neuroendocrine Tumours" or NET for short. Many websites of advocate foundation organisations and specialist scientific organisations, all still use the term "NET" in their naming. I too am guilty of having a large Facebook site falling into this category. It's little wonder that those with high grade disease can often feel like the forgotten patient group. …

11 Mar 2024

By Ronny Allan

25 Comments

The Classification, Grading and Staging of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (incorporating WHO 2026 classification changes)

Patient AdvocacyBlue Book, Cancer grading, Cancer staging, Carcinoid tumour, Differentiation, ENETS, Grade, High grade neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Intermediate grade NET, Ki-67, Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), Low Grade NETs, MEN1 syndrome, Mitotic count, Mitotic rate, Neuroendocrine cancer, Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Pathology, Poorly differentiated, Proliferative rate, Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SCNEC), Stage, Surgery, TNM staging system, Well differentiated

Updated 1st April 2026 This section of my website has been published since 2015 but the most recent update to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Classification of for Digestive Systems is about to be published. You may see these important publications called 'Blue Books'. The main changes worth mentioning here is the addition of two new types of Gastric NETs - Types IV and V, a genetic mutation and PPI related respectively. A larger update will be added when the publication is available online. The WHO Classification of Endocrine and Neuroendocrine Tumours Words are very important in NENs To enable…

19 May 2017

By Ronny Allan

5 Comments

ASCO 2017 – Let’s talk about NETs #ASCO17

Clinical Trials and Research5-HIAA, Advanced neuroendocrine cancer, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Bone metastases, Cancer of unknown primary (CUP), CAPecitabine TEMozolomide (CAPTEM)., Carcinoid crisis, Carcinoid syndrome, Carcinoid tumour, Chemotherapy, Chromogranin A (CgA), CLARINET, Comorbidity, DUNE trial, Durvalumab, ELECT study, Flushing, Ga68-OPS202, Grading, Hormones, Incurable cancer, Ki-67, Lanreotide, Liver metastases, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, Molecular markers, NETest, Neuroendocrine, Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Octreotide, Pancreatic NET (PanNET), Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), Poorly differentiated, Pre-existing condition, PRRT, Quality of LIfe (QoL), Small intestine NET (SI NET), Somatostatin analogues, Stage, Surgery, Theranostics, Well differentiated

ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) is one of the biggest cancer conferences in the world normally bringing together more than 30,000 oncology professionals from around the world to discuss state-of-the-art treatment modalities, new therapies, and ongoing controversies in the field. As Neuroendorine Tumors is on a roll in terms of new treatments and continued research, we appear to be well represented with over 20 'extracts' submitted for review and display. This is fairly complex stuff but much of it will be familiar to many. I've filtered and extracted all the Neuroendocrine stuff into one list providing you with an…

27 Feb 2017

By Ronny Allan

4 Comments

It’s been 10 years since I saw a scalpel (….but my surgeon is still on speed dial)

Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, Survivorship, TreatmentAdvanced neuroendocrine cancer, Axillary nodes, Carcinoid tumour, Distant metastatis, Endocrine, Ki-67, Lung nodule, Lymphadenectomy, Lymphatic system, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, Neuroendocrine, Neuroendocrine cancer, Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Nodule, Octreoscan (Octreotide scan), Quality of LIfe (QoL), Supraclavicularfossa (SCF) lymph nodes, Surgery, Thyroid cancer

In 2012, I had a bunch of lymph nodes removed. Two separate areas were resected, only one was showing growth but both were showing up as hotspots on an Octreoscan. I had known since shortly after diagnosis in 2010 that 'hotspots' were showing in my left 'axillary' lymph nodes (armpit) and my left 'supraclavicular fossa' (SCF) lymph nodes (clavicle area). Some 10 months previously, I had a major liver resection, and 5 months prior to the liver resection, I had a small intestinal primary removed including work on some associated complications. There had always been a plan to optimise cytoreduction of my…