Choschzick M, Alyahiaoui M, Ciritsis A, Rossi C, Gut A, Hejduk P, Boss A. Deep learning for the standardized classification of Ki-67 in vulva carcinoma: A feasibility study.
Heliyon 2021;
7:e07577. [PMID:
34386617 PMCID:
PMC8346648 DOI:
10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07577]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2021] [Accepted: 07/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
The aim of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of automatic classification of Ki-67 histological immunostainings in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva using a deep convolutional neural network (dCNN).
Material and methods
For evaluation of the dCNN, we used 55 well characterized squamous cell carcinomas of the vulva in a tissue microarray (TMA) format in this retrospective study. The tumor specimens were classified in 3 different categories C1 (0-2%), C2 (2-20%) and C3 (>20%), representing the relation of the number of KI-67 positive tumor cells to all cancer cells on the TMA spot. Representative areas of the spots were manually labeled by extracting images of 351 × 280 pixels. A dCNN with 13 convolutional layers was used for the evaluation. Two independent pathologists classified 45 labeled images in order to compare the dCNN's results to human readouts.
Results
Using a small labeled dataset with 1020 images with equal distribution among classes, the dCNN reached an accuracy of 90.9% (93%) for the training (validation) data. Applying a larger dataset with additional 1017 labeled images resulted in an accuracy of 96.1% (91.4%) for the training (validation) dataset. For the human readout, there were no significant differences between the pathologists and the dCNN in Ki-67 classification results.
Conclusion
The dCNN is capable of a standardized classification of Ki-67 staining in vulva carcinoma; therefore, it may be suitable for quality control and standardization in the assessment of tumor grading.
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