Table 1.
Evaluation of miR-21 in cytokeratin-positive tumor budding cells
| Case | Stagea | Dominant miR-21 tumor pattern | Focal miR-21 expressing carcinoma cellsb | Total tumor budding cellsc | miR-21 positive tumor budding cells (%)d | miR-21 and laminin-5γ2 co-localization (%)e | metachronous distant metastasis during 5 year follow-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | II | Stromal | No | 59 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | No |
| 2 | II | Stromal | No | 71 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | No |
| 3 | II | Stromal | No | 138 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | No |
| 4 | II | Stromal | No | 52 | 4 (7.7) | 1 (1.9) | No |
| 5 | II | Stromal | No | 72 | 6 (8.3) | 1 (1.4) | Yes |
| 6 | III | Stromal | No | 95 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | Yes |
| 7 | III | Stromal | No | 155 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | No |
| 8 | III | Stromal | No | 62 | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | No |
| 9 | III | Stromal | No | 80 | 1 (1.3) | 0 (0) | Yes |
| 10 | III | Stromal | Yes | 19 | 1 (5.3) | 0 (0) | Yes |
| 11 | III | Stromal | Yes | 81 | 8 (9.9) | 6 (7.4) | No |
| 12 | III | Stromal | No | 81 | 9 (11.1) | 8 (9.9) | No |
| 13 | III | Stromal | Yes | 82 | 11 (13.4) | 5 (6.1) | No |
| 14 | III | Stromal | Yes | 50 | 13 (26.0) | 2 (4.0) | Yes |
| 15 | III | Epitheliald | – | 37 | 10 (27.0) | 3 (8.1) | Yes |
| 16 | III | Epithelial | – | 52 | 22 (43.1) | 3 (5.9) | Yes |
aStage II is characterized by absence of lymph node metastasis, stage III by the presence of lymph node metastasis
bExcluding tumor budding cells
cCounted in three high power fields
dPercentage of total number of tumor budding cells
eIn FISH primarily epithelial miR-21 expression, while CISH showed global weak stromal expression with focal epithelial expression at the invasive front