ABSTRACT
Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between the clinicopathological characteristics of colorectal adenocarcinoma and the growth pattern, tumor budding, and CD8+T lymphocyte infiltration in anterior invasive margins, and to assess their value as prognostic indicators. Methods: Paraffin embedded samples were collected from 126 patients with primary colorectal adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical resection in Zhangye People's Hospital Affiliated to Hexi College from January 2008 to December 2019. A total of 126 pathological sections were stained by immunohistochemistry. Anti-cytokeratin antibodies were used to mark tumor cell budding and anti-CD8 antibody markers T lymphocytes were evaluated. Results: In colorectal adenocarcinoma, infiltrative growth patterns and high-grade tumor budding in invasive margins were significantly associated with pathological stage of tumor size (pT) (P=0.029 and P<0.001, respectively), pathological stage of lymph node metastasis (pN) (P<0.001 and P=0.023, respectively) and vessel infiltration (P<0.001 and P<0.001, respectively). Furthermore, high-grade CD8+T lymphocyte infiltration was associated with the absence of lymph node metastases (P=0.050). Conclusions: Infiltrative growth patterns and high-grade tumor budding in colorectal adenocarcinoma invasive margins were correlated with patient prognosis. Importantly, these two features are easily detectable (with the help of pan-cytokeratin immunohistochemistry staining), in a reproducible manner. Therefore, we propose that they could be used as prognostic indicators in colorectal adenocarcinoma patients.