title: New breast cancer prognostic factors identified by computer-aided image analysis of HE stained histopathology images.
abstract: Computer-aided image analysis (CAI) can help objectively quantify morphologic features of hematoxylin-eosin (HE) histopathology images and provide potentially useful prognostic information on breast cancer. We performed a CAI workflow on 1,150 HE images from 230 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast. We used a pixel-wise support vector machine classifier for tumor nests (TNs)-stroma segmentation, and a marker-controlled watershed algorithm for nuclei segmentation. 730 morphologic parameters were extracted after segmentation, and 12 parameters identified by Kaplan-Meier analysis were significantly associated with 8-year disease free survival (P < 0.05 for all). Moreover, four image features including TNs feature (HR 1.327, 95%CI [1.001-1.759], P = 0.049), TNs cell nuclei feature (HR 0.729, 95%CI [0.537-0.989], P = 0.042), TNs cell density (HR 1.625, 95%CI [1.177-2.244], P = 0.003), and stromal cell structure feature (HR 1.596, 95%CI [1.142-2.229], P = 0.006) were identified by multivariate Cox proportional hazards model to be new independent prognostic factors. The results indicated that CAI can assist the pathologist in extracting prognostic information from HE histopathology images for IDC. The TNs feature, TNs cell nuclei feature, TNs cell density, and stromal cell structure feature could be new prognostic factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors &Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Jia-Mei
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key State Laboratory of Software Engineering, School of Computer, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Ai-Ping
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors &Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Lin-Wei
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors &Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Jing-Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors &Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors &Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Qing-Ming
authors.initials: QM
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Ninu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Maskey
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Gui-Fang
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key State Laboratory of Software Engineering, School of Computer, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors &Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS) / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D006416:Hematoxylin / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D004801:Eosine Yellowish-(YS); D006416:Hematoxylin