PO.BCS01.06 · 生物信息与计算
OncoPredikt:一个用于乳腺癌IHC全切片图像中肿瘤检测和生物标志物定量的深度学习框架
OncoPredikt: A deep-learning framework for tumor detection and biomarker quantification in breast cancer IHC whole-slide images
作者与单位 Authors & Affiliations
摘要 Abstract
中文摘要
背景:尽管有标准化的方案,乳腺癌中的生物标志物定量仍然具有挑战性。病理学家的手工评估引入了变异性并遗漏了细微的HER2模式,HER2 0与1+区分的病理学家间一致性仅为26%。第二代抗体-药物偶联物现已靶向HER2-low和HER2-ultralow肿瘤,但传统的视觉评估无法可靠地识别HER2几乎难以检测(≤10%的细胞中出现微弱染色)的患者。我们提出了一种AI驱动的方法,用于乳腺癌中ER、PR、HER2和Ki67的客观肿瘤检测和自动化生物标志物定量。
方法:基于AI的OncoPredikt模型经设计并在H&E图像上进行训练(130例训练,53例验证,来自TCGA/内部队列),在IHC WSI上进行测试以实现跨染色泛化的自动化肿瘤检测。此外,在检测到的肿瘤区域内进行自动化生物标志物定量。所有工作流程均对照病理学家的标注进行验证。
结果:肿瘤掩膜在H&E上实现了Dice相似系数>0.8,在IHC WSI上取得了更好的结果。使用我们基于AI的方法进行的ER/PR预测对于阴性样本显示为弱阳性。对于2例经病理学家分析的IHC 0(阴性)HER2样本,通过基于AI的方法进行测试,产生了Ultra-Low(0+)和(1+)预测,提示存在细微阳性。该算法在区分0+超低(≤10%细胞的微弱染色)与0(无染色)方面展现出有前景的性能,弥补了此前HER2-ultralow患者无法用于ADC选择的关键诊断空白。自动化评估在ER/PR Allred分类和Ki67增殖指数方面与病理学家评分显示出高度一致性。
结论:HER2超低检测能力直接解决了一个公认的瓶颈:对<10%细胞中微弱、不完整的膜染色进行视觉检查低于人类可靠检测的水平,然而临床试验证实ADC在HER2-low/ultralow疾病中的疗效。0与1+区分26%的病理学家间一致性凸显了客观定量的临床价值。从手工标注转向算法衍生的肿瘤掩膜消除了观察者变异性,节省了工作量繁重的病理学家的时间,并减少了报告中的主观性。因此,AI驱动的肿瘤检测结合客观的生物标志物定量,构成了乳腺癌精准肿瘤学的有意义进步,使得能够识别此前对标准病理学评估不可见的生物标志物。仍有必要在大样本集上进行进一步验证。
查看英文原文 English abstract
Background: Biomarker quantification in breast cancer remains challenging despite standardized protocols. Manual pathologist assessment introduces variability and misses subtle HER2 patterns, with inter-pathologist concordance for HER2 0 vs. 1+ distinction at only 26%. Second-generation antibody-drug conjugates now target HER2-low and HER2-ultralow tumors, but traditional visual assessment fails to reliably identify patients with barely detectable HER2 (faint staining in ≤10% of cells). We present an AI-driven approach for objective tumor detection and automated biomarker quantification of ER, PR, HER2 and Ki67 in Breast Cancer.
Methods: AI-based OncoPredikt model was designed and trained on H&E images (130 training, 53 validations from TCGA/in-house cohorts), tested on IHC WSIs for cross-stain generalization for automated Tumor detection. Further, automated biomarker quantification was performed within the detected tumor regions. The workflows were all validated against pathologist annotations.
Results: Tumor masks achieved Dice Similarity Coefficient >0.8 on H&E and better results with IHC WSIs. The ER/PR prediction using our AI-based approach shows a weak positive for a negative sample. For 2 pathologist-analyzed IHC 0 (Neg) HER2 samples tested through the AI-based approach yielded Ultra-Low (0+) and (1+) predictions indicating subtle positivity. The algorithm demonstrated promising performance in discriminating 0+ ultra-low (faint staining ≤10% cells) from 0 (no staining), addressing the critical diagnostic gap where HER2-ultralow patients were previously inaccessible for ADC selection. Automated assessments showed strong concordance with pathologist scoring across ER/PR Allred classification and Ki67 proliferation indices.
Conclusion: The HER2 ultra-low detection capability directly addresses a recognized bottleneck: visual inspection of faint, incomplete membrane staining in <10% of cells fall below reliable human detection, yet clinical trials confirm ADC efficacy in HER2-low/ultralow disease. The 26% inter-pathologist concordance for 0 vs. 1+ distinction underscores the clinical value of objective quantification. The shift from manual annotation to algorithm-derived tumor masks eliminates observer variability and saves the time of pathologists with heavy workload and reduces subjectivity in reporting. Thus, AI-driven tumor detection coupled with objective biomarker quantification constitutes a meaningful advancement for precision oncology in breast cancer, enabling identification of biomarkers previously invisible to standard pathology assessment. Further validation on large sample sets is still warranted.
利益披露 Disclosure
G. Shafi, None..
P. Shivamurthy, None..
A. Satpute, None..
H. Kothavade, None..
N. Ramchandani, None.