The Prognostic Importance of Tumor Budding in Intestinal-Type Gastric Adenocarcinoma

Aim: Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Tumor budding has been
shown to be a prognostic factor in many cancers. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic
significance of tumor budding in intestinal-type gastric adenoc arcinoma.
Patients and Methods: A total of 152 cases diagnosed as intestinal type gastric adenocarcinoma in
the Pathology Clinic between 2015 and 2021 were included in the study. Tumor budding was grouped
as low, medium and high. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides were re-evaluated in terms of tumor
differentiation, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), perineural invasion (PNI), lymph node involvement, depth
of invasion (pT) and tumor budding.
Results: Tumor budding was low in 30.9% (n=47) of the subjects included in the study, moderate in 37.5%
(n=57) and high in 31.4% (n=48). Statistically, as tumor budding increased, tumor size increased (p<0,05),
follow-up times were shortened, survival time (p<0,05), and tumor differentiation (p<0,05) decreased. A
statistically significant correlation was observed between tumor budding and LVI (p<0,05), PNI (p<0,05),
pT(p<0,05), lymph node involvement(p<0,05), and mortality of the cases (p<0,05). No statistically
significant correlation was observed between tumor budding and gender, age, tumor localization and
operation type (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Tumor budding is associated with poor prognostic factors. As it may be important to guide
the treatment modality and follow-up, tumor budding status may be mentioned in routine pathology reports.