Voutsadakis IA. Prognostic role of tumor budding in breast cancer. World J E 2018; 8(2): 12-17 [PMID: 30211020 DOI: 10.5493/wjem.v8.i2.12]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ioannis A Voutsadakis, MD, PhD, Doctor, Algoma District Cancer Program, Sault Area Hospital, 750 Great Northern Road, Sault Ste Marie, ON P3E 2C6, Canada. ivoutsadakis@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J E. Sep 7, 2018; 8(2): 12-17 Published online Sep 7, 2018. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v8.i2.12
Prognostic role of tumor budding in breast cancer
Ioannis A Voutsadakis
Ioannis A Voutsadakis, Algoma District Cancer Program, Sault Area Hospital, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada; and Section of Internal Medicine, Division of Clinical Sciences, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, P3E 2C6, Canada
Author contributions: Voutsadakis IA is the sole contributor in the conception and writing of this article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ioannis A Voutsadakis, MD, PhD, Doctor, Algoma District Cancer Program, Sault Area Hospital, 750 Great Northern Road, Sault Ste Marie, ON P3E 2C6, Canada. ivoutsadakis@yahoo.com
Telephone: +1-705-7593434 Fax: +1-705-7593434
Received: July 5, 2018 Peer-review started: July 5, 2018 First decision: August 2, 2018 Revised: August 4, 2018 Accepted: August 12, 2018 Article in press: August 13, 2018 Published online: September 7, 2018
Abstract
Tumor budding, defined as a small number of cancer cells observed in pathology sections detached from the main tumor mass, is a common phenomenon in cancer. It is suggested that cells in buds are in the process of actively moving away from the primary tumor in the first step of metastasis. Tumor budding has been observed in a variety of carcinomas and is best studied in colorectal cancers where it portends poor prognosis. More recently, tumor budding was found to be of prognostic significance in other cancers including breast cancer. Tumor budding in breast cancer is associated with other adverse pathologic factors, such as larger tumor size and lymphovascular invasion, but may have additional independent prognostic value. In the future, standardization of the quantification criteria for tumor budding may further aid in its adoption as a prognostic marker.
Core tip: Tumor budding, defined as scattered cells or small islands of tumor cells in the vicinity but not connected to the main tumor mass, is a common occurrence in different cancers. In breast cancer, it may portend an adverse prognosis.
