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Bioinformatics analysis quantifies neighborhood preferences of cancer cells in Hodgkin lymphoma
(2017)
Motivation Hodgkin lymphoma is a tumor of the lymphatic system and represents one of the most frequent lymphoma in the Western world. It is characterized by Hodgkin cells and Reed-Sternberg cells, which exhibit a broad morphological spectrum. The cells are visualized by immunohistochemical staining of tissue sections. In pathology, tissue images are mainly manually evaluated, relying on the expertise and experience of pathologists. Computational quantification methods become more and more essential to evaluate tissue images. In particular, the distribution of cancer cells is of great interest.
Results Here, we systematically quantified and investigated cancer cell properties and their spatial neighborhood relations by applying statistical analyses to whole slide images of Hodgkin lymphoma and lymphadenitis, which describes a non-cancerous inflammation of the lymph node. We differentiated cells by their morphology and studied the spatial neighborhood relation of more than 400,000 immunohistochemically stained cells. We found that, according to their morphological features, the cells exhibited significant preferences for and aversions to cells of specific profiles as nearest neighbor. We quantified differences between Hodgkin lymphoma and lymphadenitis concerning the neighborhood relations of cells and the sizes of cells. The approach can easily be applied to other cancer types.
In pathology, tissue images are evaluated using a light microscope, relying on the expertise and experience of pathologists. There is a great need for computational methods to quantify and standardize histological observations. Computational quantification methods become more and more essential to evaluate tissue images. In particular, the distribution of tumor cells and their microenvironment are of special interest. Here, we systematically investigated tumor cell properties and their spatial neighborhood relations by a new application of statistical analysis to whole slide images of Hodgkin lymphoma, a tumor arising in lymph nodes, and inflammation of lymph nodes called lymphadenitis. We considered properties of more than 400, 000 immunohistochemically stained, CD30-positive cells in 35 whole slide images of tissue sections from subtypes of the classical Hodgkin lymphoma, nodular sclerosis and mixed cellularity, as well as from lymphadenitis. We found that cells of specific morphology exhibited significant favored and unfavored spatial neighborhood relations of cells in dependence of their morphology. This information is important to evaluate differences between Hodgkin lymph nodes infiltrated by tumor cells (Hodgkin lymphoma) and inflamed lymph nodes, concerning the neighborhood relations of cells and the sizes of cells. The quantification of neighborhood relations revealed new insights of relations of CD30-positive cells in different diagnosis cases. The approach is general and can easily be applied to whole slide image analysis of other tumor types.