Pathological features of the differentiation landscape in esophageal squamous cell cancer and their correlations with prognosis

作者：Jiaying Deng, Lei Zhang, Zezhou Wang, Bin Li, Jia-Qing Xiang, Longfei Ma, Hongcheng Zhu, Yuan Li, Kuaile Zhao · 发表于：Frontiers in Oncology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.3389/fonc.2024.1442212 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Esophageal Cancer Research and Treatment、Colorectal and Anal Carcinomas、Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers

Background: For esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), universally accepted pathological criteria for classification by differentiation degree are lacking. Tumor budding, single-cell invasion, and nuclear grade, recognized as prognostic factors in other carcinomas, have rarely been investigated for their correlation with differentiation and prognosis in ESCC. This study aims to determine if pathological findings can predict differentiation degree and prognosis in ESCC. Patients and methods: This study reviewed tumor slides from 326 patients who underwent surgery for ESCC between 2007 and 2012. Tumors were evaluated for subtypes, tumor nest size, tumor stroma, and nuclear grade (nuclear diameter and mitosis) across different differentiation groups. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, with group differences assessed using the stratified log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The mean values of tumor budding invasion margins in well, moderately, and poorly differentiated groups were 25.3%, 30.7%, and 36.3%, respectively. Mean tumor budding/10HPFs were 8.0, 10.3, and 13.0, respectively. Well-differentiated tumors showed more keratinizing subtypes, smaller tumor budding invasion margins, more Grade 1 tumor budding (0-4 cells), absence of single-cell invasion, larger nuclear diameter (≥5 lymphocytes), higher mitotic counts, more submucosal invasion, and less lymphovascular invasion. Conversely, ...