A new methodology to predict the oncotype scores based on clinico-pathological data with similar tumor profiles.

PURPOSE: The Oncotype DX (ODX) test is a commercially available molecular test for breast cancer assay that provides prognostic and predictive breast cancer recurrence information for hormone positive, HER2-negative patients. The aim of this study is to propose a novel methodology to assist physicians in their decision-making. METHODS: A retrospective study between 2012 and 2020 with 333 cases that underwent an ODX assay from three hospitals in the Bourgogne Franche-Comté region (France) was conducted. Clinical and pathological reports were used to collect the data. A methodology based on distributional random forest was developed to predict the ODX score classes (ODX [Formula: see text] and ODX [Formula: see text]) using 9 clinico-pathological characteristics. This methodology can be used particularly to identify the patients of the training cohort that share similarities with the new patient and to predict an estimate of the distribution of the ODX score. RESULTS: The mean age of participants is 56.9 years old. We have correctly classified [Formula: see text] of patients in low risk and [Formula: see text] of patients in high risk. The overall accuracy is [Formula: see text]. The proportion of low risk correct predicted value (PPV) is [Formula: see text]. The percentage of high risk correct predicted value (NPV) is approximately [Formula: see text]. The F1-score and the Area Under Curve (AUC) are of 0.87 and 0.759, respectively. CONCLUSION: The proposed methodology makes it possible to predict the distribution of the ODX score for a patient. This prediction is reinforced by the determination of a family of known patients with follow-up of identical scores. The use of this methodology with the pathologist's expertise on the different histological and immunohistochemical characteristics has a clinical impact to help oncologist in decision-making regarding breast cancer therapy.

Evaporation-Driven Cellular Patterns in Confined Hyperelastic Hydrogels.

When a hyperelastic hydrogel confined between two parallel glass plates begins to dry from a lateral boundary, the volume lost by evaporation is accommodated by an inward displacement of the air-hydrogel interface that induces an elastic deformation of the hydrogel. Once a critical front displacement is reached, we observe intermittent fracture events initiated by a geometric instability resulting in localized bursts at the interface. These bursts relax the stresses and irreversibly form air cavities that lead to cellular networks. We show that the spatial extent of the strain field prior to a burst, influenced by the air-hydrogel interfacial tension and the confinement of the gel, determines the characteristic size of the cavities.