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. 2021 Dec;36(12):2729-2737.
doi: 10.1007/s00384-021-04023-4. Epub 2021 Sep 17.

Tumour-stroma ratio outperforms tumour budding as biomarker in colon cancer: a cohort study

Marloes A Smit  1 , Gabi W van Pelt  1 , Valeska Terpstra  2 , Hein Putter  3 , Rob A E M Tollenaar  1 , Wilma E Mesker  1 , J Han J M van Krieken  4
Affiliations

Tumour-stroma ratio outperforms tumour budding as biomarker in colon cancer: a cohort study

Marloes A Smit et al. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

The tumour-stroma ratio (TSR) and tumour budding (TB) are two high-risk factors with potential to be implemented in the next TNM classification. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the practical application of the two biomarkers based on reproducibility, independency and prognostic value. Patients diagnosed with stage II or III colon cancer who underwent surgery between 2005 and 2016 were included. Both TSR and TB were scored on haematoxylin and eosin-stained tissue sections. The TSR, based on the relative amount of stroma, was scored in increments of 10%. TB was scored following the consensus guidelines; a bud was defined as ≤ 4 tumour cells. For analysis, three categories were used. Cohen's kappa was used for reproducibility. The prognostic value was determined with survival analysis. In total, 246 patients were included. The TSR distribution was N = 137 (56%) stroma-low and N = 109 (44%) stroma-high. The TB distribution was TB-low N = 194 (79%), TB-intermediate N = 35 (14%) and TB-high N = 17 (7%). The reproducibility of the TSR was good (interobserver agreement kappa = 0.83 and intraobserver agreement kappa = 0.82), whereas the inter- and intraobserver agreement for scoring TB was moderate (kappa 0.47 and 0.45, respectively). The survival analysis showed an independent prognostic value for disease-free survival for TSR (HR 1.57; 95% CI 1.01-2.44; p = 0.048) and for TB-high (HR 2.01; 95% CI 1.02-3.96; p = 0.043). Based on current results, we suggest the TSR is a more reliable parameter in daily practice due to better reproducibility and independent prognostic value for disease-free survival.

Keywords: Colon cancer; Personalised medicine; Tumour budding; Tumour microenvironment; Tumour-stroma ratio.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of the 4-μm haematoxylin and eosin-stained slides of colon carcinomas. In A, a stroma-low tumour; in B, a stroma-high tumour. Both viewed at a 100 × magnification with an area of 3.4mm2. In C, a tumour-budding low tumour; in D, a tumour-budding high tumour. Scored in an area of 0.785mm2
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Flowchart of the patient selection
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The Kaplan-Meijer survival curves of the 246 patients with colon cancer. Survival curves for TSR in A for overall survival (p = 0.20) and B for disease-free survival (log rank p = 0.03). Survival curves for TB in C for overall survival (p = 0.04) and in D for disease-free survival (p = 0.03)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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