Role of Intratumoural Budding and Its Association with Tumour-Associated Macrophages in Preoperative Biopsies of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES

Intratumoural budding (ITB) is an emerging entity in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and serves as a prime histopathological predictor of aggressive potential. This study aimed to investigate the incidence of ITB in OSCC due to its limited representation in the literature.

METHODS

This retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences, Rohtak, India, between 2017 and 2021. A total of 73 haematoxylin and eosin-stained sections of various grades of OSCC were examined for ITB and tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs), focusing on correlating these findings with clinicopathological parameters. Immunohistochemical analysis using a cluster of differentiation 68 (CD68) was performed. Additionally, the expression of CD68+ TAMs was studied in the centre of the tumour mass and correlated with ITB to ascertain the biological behaviour of OSCC. The data obtained were analysed using chi-square and Pearson correlation tests ( < 0.05).

RESULTS

ITB significantly increased in higher histopathological grades of OSCC ( = 0.000). Conversely, CD68+ TAMs in OSCC decreased significantly as the histopathological grades increased ( = 0.000), whereas on correlating with ITB, a non-significant difference was observed, revealing a negative correlation (r = -0.149; = 0.208).

CONCLUSIONS

The inverse association between ITB and TAMs with increasing histopathological grades may help identify ITB as a precise histopathological parameter for evaluating the aggressive biological potential in OSCC. Additionally, this relationship suggests the involvement of the anti-tumour immune response of TAMs within tumour mass.