The Developing Role of Medical Physics and Imaging in Digital Pathology
A Ward1*, A Contreras2*, K Brock3*, M Yaffe4*, (1) Western University, London, ON, CA, (2) MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, (3) UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, (4) Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, CA
Presentations
WE-H-207-0 (Wednesday, 7/13/2022) 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]
Room 207
Diagnostic pathology has historically used formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections on a glass slide with hematoxylin and eosin staining for tissue-based diagnosis of diseases including cancer and, by characterizing disease, offers guidance for appropriate therapy. Historically pathology assessment has been largely qualitative. In oncology, for example, it has been difficult to assess issues such as tumor spatial and functional heterogeneity. The increasing use of digital pathology has provided greater insight and information for understanding a static tissue section at a fixed point in time. In vivo and/or whole organ imaging modalities, in correlation with digital pathology, can provide an opportunity to augment our knowledge of tumor and disease characteristics and processes in a more dynamic and 3-dimensional context, as well as the possibility of non-invasive procedures for diagnosis. In addition, imaging data can complement the wealth of information provided by metabolomics, proteomics and genomics for the discovery of novel treatment algorithms. The accurate correlation of in vivo imaging with digital pathology offers the potential to further understand the disease state and validate imaging signals. In this session, we will describe advances in digital pathology, in vivo image correlation with pathology, and quantitative pathology image analysis. Opportunities for bringing the tools of imaging and quantitative image analysis, originally developed by medical physicists for in vivo imaging, into the pathology lab will be highlighted. By making pathology more quantitative and objective and by fusing information from radiomic, protein and nucleic acid biomarkers we can more accurately and completely characterize disease, develop a better understanding of its natural history and select therapies that will be maximally effective. Whole mount histopathology, protein biomarker multiplex analysis and development of algorithms to provide more objective, precise and reproducible measurements for diagnosis, therapeutic decision making and monitoring of response to treatment will be discussed. Accurate MRI-histology fusion enables simulation studies exploring the effects of MRI-targeted radiation therapy on underlying histologic cancer. Method for fusion of presurgical MRI and 3D ultrasound images with whole-mount digital histology of radical prostatectomy specimens will be described and applications demonstrated in evaluating the effects of different margins around MRI-defined dominant intraprostatic lesions on the radiation dose delivered to histologically defined high-grade prostate cancer using high-dose-rate brachytherapy.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the importance of histopathology in the diagnosis of disease state
2. Illustrate the advances in digital pathology and the potential improvements in understanding tissue and disease state
3. Explain the role of advanced tissue sectioning and imaging on high precision image registration required for correlative pathology
4. Demonstrate clinical applications of correlative pathology
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: Dr. Brock receives funding from the NIH and RaySearch Laboratories. She has a licensing agreement for deformable image registration technology with RaySearch Laboratories.
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