Karyometry of infiltrating breast lesions.
OBJECTIVE
To characterize nuclei from well-differentiated, moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated lesions of invasive breast cancer by karyometry and to test the hypothesis that these diagnostic categories form homogeneous sets.


METHODS
Histopathologic sections from 6 cases of well-differentiated, 11 cases of moderately differentiated and 17 cases of poorly differentiated ductal carcinomas were digitally recorded. From each case 100 nuclei were segmented and analyzed by karyometry. A discriminant analysis was performed, and nuclear and lesion signatures were computed. The nonsupervised learning algorithm P-index was applied. A progression curve per diagnostic category based on mean nuclear abnormality and a discriminant function score was derived.


RESULTS
The well-differentiated lesions formed a homogeneous set, but both the moderately and poorly differentiated lesions showed 2 significantly different subpopulations with nuclei of substantially different nuclear abnormality and progression.


CONCLUSIONS
The visual histopathologic diagnostic assessment of these lesions was based on an evaluation of both tissue architectural criteria and nuclear criteria. Here, only the pattern of nuclear chromatin was evaluated. Cases belonging to the same diagnostic category as assessed by their differentiation may be further characterized by the extent to which the nuclei deviate from normal. There was substantial case-to-case heterogeneity in these invasive lesions.
Frank
Denise H
DH
Department of Medicine, Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724-5024, USA.
Davis
John R
JR
Ranger-Moore
James
J
Liu
Yun
Y
Bartels
Hubert G
HG
Alberts
David S
DS
Bartels
Peter H
PH
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002843:Chromatin / Q000473:pathology; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007620:Karyometry / Q000379:methods; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness
D002843:Chromatin