The Relationship between Tumor Budding and Tumor Deposits in Patients with Stage III Colorectal Carcinoma

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine 2024-05, Vol.13 (9), p.2583
• Main Authors: Bilić, Zdenko, Zovak, Mario, Glavčić, Goran, Mužina, Dubravka, Ibukić, Amir, Košec, Andro, Tomas, Davor, Demirović, Alma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cancer; Colorectal cancer; Development and progression; Diagnosis; Medical prognosis; Morphology; Patients; Prognosis; Regression analysis; Software; Statistical analysis; Surgery; Survival analysis
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm13092583

Recently, some new morphological features of colorectal cancer have been discovered as important prognostic factors; in this paper, we study the relationship between tumor budding (TB) and tumor deposits (TDs). The retrospective cohort study included 90 patients with pathohistologically confirmed stage III CRC who were treated with radical surgical resection. All hematoxylin and eosin (H and E)-stained slides from each patient were reviewed, and histological parameters were recorded. The samples were divided into two groups with similar sizes: a group without TDs (N = 51) and a control group with TDs (N = 39). The presence and TB grade were further analyzed in these groups and compared with other clinical and histological features. The prevalence of TB in the investigated cohort was unexpectedly high (94.4%). Overall, there were 23 (25.6%) Bd1, 20 (22.2%) Bd2, and 47 (52.2%) Bd3 cases. The presence of TDs was significantly associated with a higher number of TB ( < 0.001, OR 16.3) and, consequently, with a higher TB grade ( = 0.004, OR 11.04). A higher TB grade ( = 0.001, HR 2.28; 95% CI 1.93-4.76) and a growing number of TDs ( = 0.014, HR 1.52; 95% CI 1.09-2.1) were statistically significantly associated with shorter survival. TDs appear more often in patients with higher TB grades in stage III CRC. A higher TB grade and a growing number of TDs were statistically significantly associated with shorter overall survival. These results could give additional emphasis to the importance of TB as an adverse prognostic factor since a strong relationship with TDs has been demonstrated.