Sakai A, Nakashima Y, Miyashita Y, et al. - Researchers conducted the study for assessing the prognostic value of desmoplastic reaction (DR) categorization in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Data from 118 patients with OSCC who had a curative oesophagectomy with T2 or deeper wall invasion were obtained. Forty-nine mature DR tumours, 41 intermediate DR tumours and 28 immature DR tumours were identified. Findings suggested that DR categorisation of OSCC stroma after oesophagectomy is a useful diagnostic tool as well as an independent prognostic marker.