Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36268097›Full record

ArticleJournal of pathology informatics2022

Immunohistochemistry scoring of breast tumor tissue microarrays: A comparison study across three software applications.

Gabrielle M Baker, Vanessa C Bret-Mounet, Tengteng Wang, Mitko Veta, Hanqiao Zheng, Laura C Collins, A Heather Eliassen, Rulla M Tamimi, Yujing J Heng

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of pathology informatics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed
3.6field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
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  5. Comparison of QuPath and HALO Platforms for Analysis of the Tumor Microenvironment in Prostate Cancer.Laboratory investigation; a journal of technical methods and pathology · 2025
    Article
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  8. Digital pathology in tau research: A comparison of QuPath and HALO.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2025
    Article
  9. Associations of Stem Cell Markers with Lobular Involution in Benign Breast Tissue.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2025
    Article
  10. The Breast Tumor Immune Microenvironment of DNA Double-Strand Break Repair Pathogenic Variant Carriers Is Enriched with Tumor-Associated Macrophages.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2025
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  16. Associations of Early-Life and Adult Anthropometric Measures with the Expression of Stem Cell Markers CD44, CD24, and ALDH1A1 in Women with Benign Breast Biopsies.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.

Gabrielle M BakerDepartment of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Vanessa C Bret-MounetDepartment of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Tengteng WangChanning Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Mitko VetaMedical Image Analysis Group, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Hanqiao ZhengDepartment of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Laura C CollinsDepartment of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
A Heather EliassenChanning Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Rulla M TamimiDepartment of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Yujing J HengDepartment of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Harvard University · USBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Center · USCornell University · USEindhoven University of Technology · NL

Funding

VectorP30CA006516 · NCI · DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE · PI JENNIFER W MACK · 1985 to 2026
$330.6M
Tissue and Pathology CoreP50CA168504 · NCI · DANA-FARBER CANCER INST · PI Nabihah Tayob · 2013 to 2026
$30.1M
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA006516NCI NIH HHS P50 CA168504
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Digital pathology can efficiently assess immunohistochemistry (IHC) data on tissue microarrays (TMAs). Yet, it remains important to evaluate the comparability of the data acquired by different software applications and validate it against pathologist manual interpretation. In this study, we compared the IHC quantification of 5 clinical breast cancer biomarkers-estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6)-across 3 software applications (Definiens Tissue Studio, inForm, and QuPath) and benchmarked the results to pathologist manual scores. IHC expression for each marker was evaluated across 4 TMAs consisting of 935 breast tumor tissue cores from 367 women within the Nurses' Health Studies; each women contributing three 0.6-mm cores. The correlation and agreement between manual and software-derived results were primarily assessed using Spearman's ρ, percentage agreement, and area under the curve (AUC). At the TMA core-level, the correlations between manual and software-derived scores were the highest for HER2 (ρ ranging from 0.75 to 0.79), followed by ER (0.69-0.71), PR (0.67-0.72), CK5/6 (0.43-0.47), and EGFR (0.38-0.45). At the case-level, there were good correlations between manual and software-derived scores for all 5 markers (ρ ranging from 0.43 to 0.82), where QuPath had the highest correlations. Software-derived scores were highly comparable to each other (ρ ranging from 0.80 to 0.99). The average percentage agreements between manual and software-derived scores were excellent for ER (90.8%-94.5%) and PR (78.2%-85.2%), moderate for HER2 (65.4%-77.0%), highly variable for EGFR (48.2%-82.8%), and poor for CK5/6 (22.4%-45.0%). All AUCs across markers and software applications were ≥0.83. The 3 software applications were highly comparable to each other and to manual scores in quantifying these 5 markers. QuPath consistently produced the best performance, indicating this open-source software is an excellent alternative for future use.

Indexed as

AutomationCytokeratin 5/6DefiniensEpithelium growth factor receptorEstrogen receptorinFormProgesterone receptorQuPath

Identifiers

PMID36268097
PMCPMC9577037
OpenAlexW4283702254

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.