Semi-automatic identification of punching areas for tissue microarray building: the tubular breast cancer pilot study

Background: Tissue MicroArray technology aims to perform immunohistochemical staining on hundreds of different tissue samples simultaneously. It allows faster analysis, considerably reducing costs incurred in staining. A time consuming phase of the methodology is the selection of tissue areas within paraffin blocks: no utilities have been developed for the identification of areas to be punched from the donor block and assembled in the recipient block. Results: The presented work supports, in the specific case of a primary subtype of breast cancer (tubular breast cancer), the semi-automatic discrimination and localization between normal and pathological regions within the tissues. The diagnosis is performed by analysing specific morphological features of the sample such as the absence of a double layer of cells around the lumen and the decay of a regular glands-and-lobules structure. These features are analysed using an algorithm which performs the extraction of morphological parameter...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Federica Viti, Ivan Merelli, Mieke Timmermans, Michael den Bakker, Francesco Beltrame, Peter Riegman, Luciano Milanesi
• Keywords: BMCBI 2010, Breast Cancer, Tissue MicroArray, Tubular Breast Cancer