Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Processing time: 63 Days and 8.9 Hours
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.

Keywords: Tumor budding; Infiltration; Metastasis; Breast cancer; Prognosis; Epithelial to mesenchymal transition

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.