Cacchi C, Fischer HJ, Wermker K, Rashad A, Jonigk DD, Hölzle F, Klein M. New Tumor Budding Evaluation in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas.
Cancers (Basel) 2024;
16:587. [PMID:
38339338 PMCID:
PMC10854693 DOI:
10.3390/cancers16030587]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 01/27/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Tumor budding (TB) is a histomorphological characteristic of the tumor invasion front and it has an impact on the tumor outcome prediction for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) aetiopathology.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
The average TB score (TB rel) of all tumor-positive marginal sections (n = 443) in the primary tumor was analyzed in the FFPE-fixed tumor slices of 66 patients with HNSCC, and they were compared with cryo-fixed sections.
RESULTS
TB rel correlates with tumor aggressiveness (i.e., lymph node metastasis quantity, lymph node ratio, extra capsular growth, Pn1, pV1, grading). The TB scores often vary between the different tumor margins of FFPE sections in the same patient, and in many cases, they differ depending on the fixation method.
CONCLUSION
Our data show that a randomly selected marginal cut cannot reliably mirror the TB score, and thus, they cannot predict the prognostic outcome. However, TB rel could be a tool that compensates for differences in TB score analysis. TB score determination in cryo sections seems to be inaccurate compared with TB determination in FFPE.
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