Tumor budding as a potential prognostic marker in determining the behavior of primary liver cancers

Table 2 Criteria applied for tumor budding in previous studies

Ref.	Tumor	Tumor budding criteria
Kairaluoma et al[75]	HCC	Evaluation was performed according to median values; Negative: No buds were found; Positive: At least one bud was present
Wei et al[76]	HCC	Association between TB and clinicopathological parameters; Grade 1 (0-4), Grade 2 (5-9), Grade 3 (≥ 10); For survival analysis; Low grade (0-9), High grade (≥ 10)
Okubo et al[77]	CCC	Negative: < 5 budding focus; Positive: ≥ 5 budding focus
Ogino et al[78]	EHCC-PH, EHCC-DC	Cut-off values of TB obtained by recursive partioning technique; For EHCC-PH; Low grade (0-4), Intermediate grade (5-11), High grade (≥ 12); For EHCC-DC; Low grade (0-4), High grade (≥ 5)
Tanaka et al[80]	ICC, EHCC-PH, EHCC-DC	Low grade (0-4), Intermediate grade (5-9), High grade (≥10)
Ito et al[81]	EHCC-PH	Low TB: < 5 budding focus; High TB: ≥ 5 budding focus
Agostini-Vulaj et al[83]	ICC, EHCC	Grade 1 (0-4), Grade 2 (5-9), Grade 3 (≥ 10)
Budau et al[84]	ICC	Grade 1 (0-4), Grade 2 (5-9), Grade 3 (≥ 10)
Kosaka et al[85]	ICC	Low grade (0-4), Intermediate grade (5-9), High grade (≥ 10)
Nakayama et al[82]	EHCC-DC	Low TB (0-4), High [TB Grade 2 (5-9) and 3 (≥ 10)]

CCC: Cholangiocarcinoma; EHCC-DC: Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma-distal; EHCC-PH: Extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma-perihilar; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; ICC: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.