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Tumour budding in colorectal cancer: what do we know and what can we do?

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Abstract

Budding is a process during which individual or small clusters of up to five tumour cells detach from the main tumour mass and invade into the surrounding stroma. In colorectal cancer, this feature is observed in 20–40 % of cases and is associated with lymphovascular invasion, lymph node and distant metastases, and poor prognosis. A variety of scoring systems for budding have been proposed but so far a gold standard is lacking, hampering implementation of a budding score in guidelines for pathological examination of colorectal cancer. Furthermore, little is known about the mechanisms which cause tumour cells to detach from the main tumour mass and obtain increased invasive potential. In this review, we present an overview of tumour budding including its definition, scoring systems, prognostic relevance and biological mechanisms involved.

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  1. Translational Cell and Tissue Research, Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Minderbroedersstraat 12 blok q bus 3001, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Linde De Smedt, Sofie Palmans & Xavier Sagaert

  2. Pathology Department, UZ Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Xavier Sagaert

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  1. Linde De Smedt
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De Smedt, L., Palmans, S. & Sagaert, X. Tumour budding in colorectal cancer: what do we know and what can we do?. Virchows Arch 468, 397–408 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-015-1886-5

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