Background: Gastrointestinal tract malignancies (GIT) are on the
rise and it is imperative to identify individuals at risk of developing
relapse or metastasis and decide on management protocol
consequently. Accurate risk assessment is pivotal to balance benefit
versus overtreatment. Recently the tumour bud scoring has been
included as a marker in cancers. The present study was planned
to determine the association of tumour budding with various
clinicopathology parameters in GIT malignancies. Material &
Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted over a duration
of two years including 40 cases. Tumour budding was counted in
the maximum invasive area. Tumour budding was defined as the
presence of single tumour cells or small clusters of up to five cells
in the tumour stroma, Correlation between tumour budding and
various clinicopathological characteristics were tested by chi-square
test, with p < 0.05 significance. Results: There was a statistically
significant association between grade of tumour budding and
histologic type (p < 0.048), histologic grade (p < 0.000), lymph
vascular invasion (p < 0.000), TNM staging (p < 0.001) and tumour
interface (infiltrative versus expansile) (p < 0.004). Conclusion:
Astandardized information about presence of tumour budding in
routine histopathology reporting of GIT malignancies will help
clinicians in adopting an effective modality of treatment for better
patient care.
Keywords: Tumour budding; Gastrointestinal tract; Prognosis.