Toward a quantitative method for estimating tumour-stroma ratio in breast cancer using polarized light microscopy
The tumour-stroma ratio (TSR) has been explored as a useful source of prognostic information in various cancers, including colorectal, breast, and gastric. Despite research showing potential prognostic utility, its uptake into the clinic has been limited, in part due to challenges associated with su...
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Published in | Biomedical optics express Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 3241 - 3252 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Optical Society of America
01.06.2021
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The tumour-stroma ratio (TSR) has been explored as a useful source of prognostic information in various cancers, including colorectal, breast, and gastric. Despite research showing potential prognostic utility, its uptake into the clinic has been limited, in part due to challenges associated with subjectivity, reproducibility, and quantification. We have recently proposed a simple, robust, and quantifiable high-contrast method of imaging intra- and peri-tumoural stroma based on polarized light microscopy. Here we report on its use to quantify TSR in human breast cancer using unstained slides from 40 patient samples of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Polarimetric results based on a stromal abundance metric correlated well with pathology designations, showing a statistically significant difference between high- and low-stroma samples as scored by two clinical pathologists. The described polarized light imaging methodology shows promise for use as a quantitative, automatic, and standardizable tool for quantifying TSR, potentially addressing some of the challenges associated with its current estimation. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2156-7085 2156-7085 |
DOI: | 10.1364/BOE.422452 |