Relationships between Tumour-Stroma Ratio, Peritumoral Inflammatory Infiltrate and Clinicopathological Factors in Resected Colorectal Cancer in Yaounde

Background: Factors such as tumour-stroma ratio (TSR) and peritumoral inflammation have been found to be reliable independent prognostic factors in some solid tumours. The aim of this preliminary study was to assess the relationship between these factors and the predicted prognosis based on the grade of the tumour in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Medical and pathological records of patients with potentially curative resected CRC at Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital from January 2009 to May 2015 were reviewed retrospectively for gender, age and some pathological factors such as tumour location, grade, differentiation and margin involvement. Corresponding pathological slides were proofreading by conventional microscopy for TSR and peritumoral inflammation. Tumours with less than 50% of stroma were considered as low stroma tumours and the remainders as high stroma tumours. Peritumoral inflammation was classified as low grade inflammation (score 0-1) and high grade inflammation (2-3) according to Klintrup-Makinen criteria. This was correlated to the above clinicopathological factors. Results: There were 58 patients. The mean age was 53.3 ± 15.7 years with a male to female ratio of 0.70. We found 81% of low stroma tumours and56.9% of high grade inflammation tumours. No correlation was found between TSR, peritumoral inflammation and standard clinicopathological factors. Only parietal invasion was significantly correlated with peritumoral inflammation (P=0.03). Conclusions: The role of the TSR and peritumoral inflammation still needs to be determined in our environment.