RESUMEN
Fluorescence confocal microscopy (FCM) is an optical technique that uses laser light sources of different wavelengths to generate real-time images of fresh, unfixed tissue specimens. FCM allows histological evaluation of fresh tissue samples without the associated cryo artifacts after frozen sectioning. The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate pediatric tumor specimens and assess their suitability for fresh tumor sampling. In addition, we aimed to determine whether tumor cell isolation for stable cell culture is still feasible after FCM imaging. Pediatric tumor specimens were imaged using FCM. Tumor viability and suitability for tissue sampling were evaluated and compared with H&E staining after paraffin embedding. In addition, FCM-processed and non-FCM-processed tissue samples were sent for tumor cell isolation to evaluate possible effects after FCM processing. When comparing estimated tumor cell viability using FCM and H&E, we found good to excellent correlating estimates (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.891, p < 0.001), as well as substantial agreement in whether the tissue appeared adequate for fresh tissue collection (κ = 0.762, p < 0.001). After FCM, seven out of eight samples yielded passable cell cultures, compared to eight out of eight for non-FCM processed samples. Our study suggests that the use of FCM in tumor sampling can increase the yield of suitable fresh tumor samples by identifying viable tumor areas and ensuring that sufficient tissue remains for diagnosis. Our study also provides first evidence that the isolation and growth of tumor cells in culture are not compromised by the FCM technique.
RESUMEN
AIMS: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) differ in prognosis and treatment. We aimed to non-invasively differentiate iCCA and HCC by means of radiomics extracted from contrast-enhanced standard-of-care computed tomography (CT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 94 patients (male, n = 68, mean age 63.3 ± 12.4 years) with histologically confirmed iCCA (n = 47) or HCC (n = 47) who underwent contrast-enhanced abdominal CT between August 2014 and November 2021 were retrospectively included. The enhancing tumour border was manually segmented in a clinically feasible way by defining three three-dimensional volumes of interest per tumour. Radiomics features were extracted. Intraclass correlation analysis and Pearson metrics were used to stratify robust and non-redundant features with further feature reduction by LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator). Independent training and testing datasets were used to build four different machine learning models. Performance metrics and feature importance values were computed to increase the models' interpretability. RESULTS: The patient population was split into 65 patients for training (iCCA, n = 32) and 29 patients for testing (iCCA, n = 15). A final combined feature set of three radiomics features and the clinical features age and sex revealed a top test model performance of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve (AUC) = 0.82 (95% confidence interval =0.66-0.98; train ROC AUC = 0.82) using a logistic regression classifier. The model was well calibrated, and the Youden J Index suggested an optimal cut-off of 0.501 to discriminate between iCCA and HCC with a sensitivity of 0.733 and a specificity of 0.857. CONCLUSIONS: Radiomics-based imaging biomarkers can potentially help to non-invasively discriminate between iCCA and HCC.
Asunto(s)
Neoplasias de los Conductos Biliares , Carcinoma Hepatocelular , Colangiocarcinoma , Neoplasias Hepáticas , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Anciano , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/diagnóstico por imagen , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/patología , Neoplasias Hepáticas/diagnóstico por imagen , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patología , Estudios Retrospectivos , Tomografía Computarizada por Rayos X/métodos , Colangiocarcinoma/diagnóstico por imagen , Neoplasias de los Conductos Biliares/diagnóstico por imagen , Conductos Biliares Intrahepáticos/diagnóstico por imagen , Conductos Biliares Intrahepáticos/patologíaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In prostate cancer patients, application of the NeuroSAFE frozen section technique during radical prostatectomy has been shown to increase the rate of nerve sparing surgery and to improve functional outcome for the patients. The aim of this study is to report on technical and organizational optimization opportunities of the procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All patients submitted to bilateral intraoperative frozen section from January 2018 until December 2020 (n = 452) were retrospectively analyzed and parameters such as turnaround time, staff situation in the laboratory and histologic properties of the tumors were assessed. RESULTS: The median turnaround time per case was 40.3 ( ± 10.5) min. In 2020 the average time needed from accessioning to diagnosis was 38.1 min. Multivariate linear regression suggested that the number of technical assistants/cryotomes (46.1 min vs. 39.13 min; p < 0.001), the place of microscopic examination (43.0 min vs. 38.7 min; p < 0.001) and the presence of a positive margin (38.0 vs. 44.0 min; p < 0.001) were significant influential factors. The turnaround time was independent of the uropathological expertize of the consultant (39.84 min vs. 40.7 min; p = 0.09), the tumor grade (42.3 vs 39.8 min; p = 0.493) and the presence of extraprostatic extension (44.0 vs 39.8 min; p = 0.099). CONCLUSION: The implementation of simple optimization measures in the workflow as well as structured training of all pathology staff involved in the examination leads to a significant increase in the efficiency of the examination while maintaining the same level of resources. The results could thus be a contribution to the broader application of the procedure.