Renal papillary carcinoma classification into subtypes may be reproduced by nuclear morphometry.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze relationships between nuclear features of papillary renal cell carcinoma (PapRCC) subtypes.


METHODS
The material for the study consisted of 53 cases, of which 29 were type 1, 17 type 2 and 7 intermediate. At least 100 nuclei per case were segmented from images of 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole-stained slides. The geometric and texture features were extracted and used for analysis.


RESULTS
In analysis of variance, it was shown that both individual cases and tumor types differ in the majority of the parameters. On nonsupervised expectation-maximization clustering, it was possible to classify the nuclei into separate categories, but PapRCC classes were not reproduced. The neural network classified the nuclei with sensitivity >0.6 and specificity >0.75. Analyzing the results for individual cases, the nuclei of type 1 cases were properly classified in 74-91%, nuclei of type 2 cases in 58-80% and nuclei of intermediate cases in 53-70%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that PapRCC subtypes are distinct enough to be reproduced by image analysis.
Okoń
Krzysztof
K
Department of Pathomorphology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. k.okon@uj.edu.pl
Sińczak-Kuta
Anna
A
Stachura
Jerzy
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002466:Cell Nucleolus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D053144:Cell Nucleus Shape; D053145:Cell Nucleus Size; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity