Pattern and Significance of Tumour Budding in Colorectal Carcinomas Using ITBCC Guidelines: a Low Resource Setting Practice Observation

To determine the pattern and significance of tumour budding among colorectal carcinoma (CRC) Nigerian patients using the 2016 International Tumour Budding Consensus Conference (ITBCC) guidelines. HE p < 0.05 was considered significant. Ninety-six cases were included in this study. Fifty-one (53.1%) showed tumour budding. Tumour bud count was low (0–4) in 66 (68.8%), intermediate (5–9) in 12 (12.5%) and high (≥ 10) in 18 (18.8%) tumours. Four tumours had pT1 stage, 35 pT2, 37 pT3 and 20 pT4. Forty-three (44.8%) tumours were lymph node–positive, and 10 (10.4%) had metastasis. Patients’ age and tumour size distribution were similar in the tumour budding and non-budding groups (52.4 ± 17.1/58.5 ± 13.9 years and 6.6 ± 2.9/6.6 ± 2.8 cm, respectively). There was significant association between tumour budding and tumour grade (p < 0.008), pT stage (p < 0.000), lymphovascular permeation (p < 0.000), perineural invasion (p < 0.003) and nodal status (p < 0.034), but not with gender (p = 0.588), metastasis (p = 0.327) and TNM group-stage (p = 0.062). Tumour budding frequency is high among our CRC patients and is associated with poorer prognostic factors.