ArticleBiomedical optics express2021
Toward a quantitative method for estimating tumour-stroma ratio in breast cancer using polarized light microscopy.
Article in Biomedical optics express, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Added value of the tumor-stroma ratio to the PREDICT model for breast cancer.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2026Article
- Machine learning based local recurrence prediction in colorectal cancer using polarized light imaging.Journal of biomedical optics · 2024Article
- Polarimetric biomarkers of peri-tumoral stroma can correlate with 5-year survival in patients with left-sided colorectal cancer.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Toward the development of a polarimetric tool to diagnose the fibrotic human ventricular myocardium.Journal of biomedical optics · 2022Article
- Polarization and Orbital Angular Momentum of Light in Biomedical Applications: feature issue introduction.Biomedical optics express · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The tumour-stroma ratio (TSR) has been explored as a useful source of prognostic information in various cancers, including colorectal, breast, and gastric. Despite research showing potential prognostic utility, its uptake into the clinic has been limited, in part due to challenges associated with subjectivity, reproducibility, and quantification. We have recently proposed a simple, robust, and quantifiable high-contrast method of imaging intra- and peri-tumoural stroma based on polarized light microscopy. Here we report on its use to quantify TSR in human breast cancer using unstained slides from 40 patient samples of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Polarimetric results based on a stromal abundance metric correlated well with pathology designations, showing a statistically significant difference between high- and low-stroma samples as scored by two clinical pathologists. The described polarized light imaging methodology shows promise for use as a quantitative, automatic, and standardizable tool for quantifying TSR, potentially addressing some of the challenges associated with its current estimation.
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Registered trials
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