Tumor budding and lymphovascular invasion as prognostic factors in p16-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We aimed to validate the prognostic significance of tumor budding (TB) in p16-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC).

Methods

We analyzed digitized H&E-stained slides from a multicenter cohort of five large university centers consisting of n = 275 cases of p16-positive OPSCC. We evaluated TB along with other histological parameters (morphology, tumor-stroma-ratio, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), perineural invasion) and calculated survival outcomes using both univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results

TB was identified as an independent prognostic parameter, with TB-high cases showing inferior outcomes in univariate (HR: 3.08, 95%-CI: 1.71-5.54) and multivariate analyses (HR: 4.03, 95%-CI: 1.65-9.83). Similarly, LVI remained an independen

SUBMITTER: Stogbauer F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11747400 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature