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World J Gastrointest Surg. Apr 27, 2023; 15(4): 578-591
Published online Apr 27, 2023. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v15.i4.578
Tumor budding in gastric cancer
Shuo-Meng Xiao, Jian Li
Shuo-Meng Xiao, Department of Gastric Surgery, Sichuan Cancer Hospital, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Jian Li, Department of General Surgery, The Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang 621000, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Li J designed the review; Li J and Xiao SM reviewed the literature; Xiao SM drafted the manuscript; Li J revised the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian Li, MM, Surgeon, Department of General Surgery, The Third Hospital of Mianyang, Sichuan Mental Health Center, No. 190 East Section of Jiannan Road, Youxian District, Mianyang 621000, Sichuan Province, China. 654747973@qq.com
Received: December 21, 2022
Peer-review started: December 21, 2022
First decision: February 1, 2023
Revised: February 4, 2023
Accepted: March 21, 2023
Article in press: March 21, 2023
Published online: April 27, 2023
Processing time: 123 Days and 4.1 Hours
Abstract

The tumor, nodes, metastasis (TNM) staging system has long been the gold standard for the classification and prognosis of solid tumors. However, the TNM staging system is not without limitations. Prognostic heterogeneity exists within patients at the same stage. Therefore, the pursuit of other biomarkers with the potential to classify patients with cancer has never stopped. One of them, tumor budding (TB), has gained much success in colorectal cancer. In recent years, TB in gastric cancer has attracted much attention from researchers, beginning to reveal the molecular and biological aspects of this phenomenon in gastric cancer, and has emerged as a promising prognostic biomarker in gastric cancer, predicting disease progression and unfavorable survival. Therefore, it is time and essential to provide a holistic overview of TB in gastric cancer, which has not been achieved and is the aim of this review.

Keywords: Tumor budding; Gastric cancer; Poorly differentiated cluster; Prognosis; Lymph node metastasis

Core Tip: Tumor budding has gained much success in colorectal cancer and has begun to attract much attention from researchers proficient in gastric cancer. Tumor budding showed promising prognostic potential in gastric cancer with the ability to predict disease progression and unfavorable survival. Therefore, it is time and essential to provide a holistic overview of tumor budding in gastric cancer, which has not been achieved and is the aim of this review, in which we summarize the current data on tumor budding in gastric cancer and discuss its clinical application prospects and challenges.