Article type: Research Article
Authors: Hipp, Jason | Cheng, Jerome | Daignault, Stephanie | Sica, Jefferey | Dugan, Michael C.; | Lucas, David | Yagi, Yukako | Hewitt, Stephen | Balis, Ulysses J.
Affiliations: University of Michigan Health System, Department of Pathology, Medical Science I, Ann Arbor, MI, USA | National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Pathology, Advanced Technology Center, Gaithersburg, MD, USA | MGH Pathology Imaging & Communication, Technology (PICT) Center, Boston, MA, USA | Esoterix Genetic Laboratories, LLC, Pathology Services, Los Angeles, CA, USA | Roche molecular systems, Inc., Pleasanton, CA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Ulysses J. Balis, MD, Department of Pathology, University of Michigan Health System, M4233A Medical Science I, 1301 Catherine, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0602, USA. Tel.: +1 734 615 5727; Fax: +1 603 250 3139; E-mail: ulysses@umich.edu
Abstract: Recently, with the advent of the 7th edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging manual, at least one set of criteria (e.g. breast) were modified to now require the measurement of maximal depth of stromal invasion. With the current manual interpretive morphological approaches typically employed by surgical pathologists to assess tumor extent, the specialty now potentially has stumbled upon a crossroads of practice, where the diagnostic criteria have exceeded the capabilities of our commonly available tools. While whole slide imaging (WSI) technology holds the potential to offer many improvements in clinical workflow over conventional slide microscopy including unambiguous utility for facilitating quantitative diagnostic tasks with one important example being the determination of both linear dimension and surface area. However, the availability of histology data in digital form is of little utility if time-consuming and cumbersome manual workflow steps are necessarily imposed upon the pathologist in order to generate such measurements, especially as encountered with the complex and ill-defined shapes inherent to infiltrative tumors. In this communication, we demonstrate the utility of the recently described SIVQ algorithm to serve as the basis of a highly accurate, precise and semi-automated tool for direct surface area measurement of tumor infiltration from WSI data sets. By anticipating the current trend in cancer staging that emphasizes increasingly precise feature characterization, as witnessed by the recent publication of AJCC's 7th edition of the Cancer Staging Manual, this tool holds promise to will be of value to pathologists for clinical utility.
Keywords: SIVQ, area calculation, WSI, digital slide
DOI: 10.3233/ACP-2011-0025
Journal: Analytical Cellular Pathology, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 265-275, 2011
