Two Instrument Comparison of Reagents From a US FDA-Approved Assay for the Assessment of Ki-67 in High-Risk Early Breast Cancer

The objective of this study was to measure concordance of results obtained from the US Food and Drug Administration-approved Ki-67 immunohistochemistry MIB-1 pharmDx assay performed on the Dako Omnis automated staining instrument (Omnis) versus results produced from the assay reagents applied using an optimized protocol on the more widely available Autostainer Link 48 (ASL48) platform. Tissue sections obtained from 40 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded breast carcinoma samples, with available Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score (RS) results, were stained. Three certified pathologists scored slides at 3 timepoints, totaling 360 observations for each instrument (N=720 total) using the approved scoring approach. Using the >= 20% cutoff, agreement was calculated with corresponding 2-sided 95% percentile bootstrap confidence intervals (CIs). Pairwise comparisons (N=360) from the interinstrument evaluation, performed with all observers, resulted in 325 (90.3%) concordant outcomes (244 negative and 81 positive) and 35 (9.7%) discordant outcomes. The overall agreement was 90.3% (95% confidence interval, 85.6% to 94.4%). No significant systematic differences were observed between instruments. Specimens scored from the Omnis were on average <1% higher than ASL48, with high correlation and little bias between the continuous Ki-67 scores (concordance correlation coefficient=0.916). Most specimens with a Ki-67 score >= 20% had a RS >25. This study demonstrated that good concordance can be achieved with the reagents run on the ASL48 instrument when using an optimized protocol and standardized scoring.

Automated summary

This study compared the concordance of Ki-67 immunohistochemistry results obtained from different automated staining instruments on breast cancer samples and found that good concordance can be achieved with reagents run on the ASL48 instrument, demonstrating the importance of optimized protocols and standardized scoring.