Tumor Budding in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Tumor budding is defined as the presence of a single tumor cell or a small cluster of up to five cells in the tumor stroma, linking it to the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).¹ Imai² illustrated that tumors with this trait have more aggressive qualities and allocated the term "sprouting" instead of "budding." The term "tumor budding" was coined by Morodomi et al in 1989.³ Tumor budding in vitro or in experiments has been addressed by many names, depending on the researcher's background, few of which are tumor cell dissociation, focal dedifferentia-tion, or EMT.⁴.