Prognostic significance of tumour budding, tumour–stroma ratio and desmoplastic stromal reaction in gall bladder carcinoma

Aims and methodsThe prognostic role of tumour budding (TBd) and its interaction with the stromal microenvironment has gained a lot of attention recently, but remains unexplored in gall bladder cancer (GBC). We aimed to study the interrelationship of TBd by International Tumour Budding Consensus Conference scoring system, tumour–stroma ratio (TSR) and desmoplastic stromal reaction (DSR) with the conventional clinicopathological prognostic factors, mortality and overall survival (OS) in 96 patients of operated GBC.ResultsHigher age, high TNM stage, lymphovascular and perineural invasion, positive resection margins, higher TBd score, low TSR and immature DSR were significantly associated with worse OS. However, on multivariate analysis, only metastases, positive resection margins and TSR