Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the predictive value of tumor budding for lymph node metastasis of stage ⅠA2⁃ⅠB1 cervical squamous cell carcinoma（CSCC）. Methods The clinicopathological characteristics of 108 cases of stage FIGO（2009）ⅠA2⁃ⅠB1 CSCC were collected. Tumor budding（TB）was counted at HE sections and the correlation between TB and clinicopathological features was analyzed. In 33 cases，the agreement of bud counts was determined using H&E and Pan⁃CK immunostaining. Results Lymph node metastasis tended to occur more frequently in the high TB group than in the low TB group，but there was no significant difference between the two groups（P = 0.084）. High TB was significantly associated with poor tumor differentiation（P = 0.004），but not with patient age ，tumor invasion depth and lymphovascular invasion.There was a highly significant correlation between lymph node metastasis and conventional clinicopathological characteristics. The consistency rate of tumor budding categories assessed using HE and Pan ⁃ CK immunostaining was 81.8%（kappa = 0.629）. Conclusion More research on the methods of TB counts，high TB thresholds，and the predictive value of TB for lymph node metastasis of early⁃stage CSCC is needed.

Key words:

cervix, squanous cell carcinoma, tumor budding, lymph node metastasis