Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38316810›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2024

Software BreastAnalyser for the semi-automatic analysis of breast cancer immunohistochemical images.

Marina Rodríguez-Candela Mateos, Maria Azmat, Paz Santiago-Freijanes, Eva María Galán-Moya, Manuel Fernández-Delgado, Rosa Barbella Aponte, Joaquín Mosquera, Benigno Acea, Eva Cernadas, María D Mayán

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
3.3field-weighted citation impact, top 9% 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

3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Beyond the gap: moonlighting functions of connexins in cancer.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026
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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

10 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.

Marina Rodríguez-Candela Mateos *Institute of Biomedical Research of A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC), SERGAS, A Coruña, Spain.
Maria Azmat *CiTIUS - Centro Singular de Investigación en Tecnoloxías Intelixentes da USC, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Paz Santiago-FreijanesInstitute of Biomedical Research of A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC), SERGAS, A Coruña, Spain.
Eva María Galán-MoyaPhysiology and Cell Dynamics, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Biomédicas (CRIB) and Faculty of Nursing, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain.
Manuel Fernández-DelgadoCiTIUS - Centro Singular de Investigación en Tecnoloxías Intelixentes da USC, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Rosa Barbella AponteAnatomic Pathology Unit, Hospital General Universitario de Albacete, Albacete, Spain.
Joaquín MosqueraInstitute of Biomedical Research of A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC), SERGAS, A Coruña, Spain.
Benigno AceaInstitute of Biomedical Research of A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC), SERGAS, A Coruña, Spain.
Eva CernadasCiTIUS - Centro Singular de Investigación en Tecnoloxías Intelixentes da USC, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. eva.cernadas@usc.es.
María D MayánInstitute of Biomedical Research of A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña (CHUAC), SERGAS, A Coruña, Spain. mariadolores.mayan@uvigo.gal.
Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases · ESInstituto de Investigación Biomédica de A Coruña · ESComplexo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña · ESHospital General Universitario de Albacete · ESServicio Gallego de Salud · ESUniversidade de Vigo · ESUniversity of Castilla-La Mancha · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer worldwide and represents the fifth cause of cancer mortality globally. It is a highly heterogeneous disease, that comprises various molecular subtypes, often diagnosed by immunohistochemistry. This technique is widely employed in basic, translational and pathological anatomy research, where it can support the oncological diagnosis, therapeutic decisions and biomarker discovery. Nevertheless, its evaluation is often qualitative, raising the need for accurate quantitation methodologies. We present the software BreastAnalyser, a valuable and reliable tool to automatically measure the area of 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrocholoride (DAB)-brown-stained proteins detected by immunohistochemistry. BreastAnalyser also automatically counts cell nuclei and classifies them according to their DAB-brown-staining level. This is performed using sophisticated segmentation algorithms that consider intrinsic image variability and save image normalization time. BreastAnalyser has a clean, friendly and intuitive interface that allows to supervise the quantitations performed by the user, to annotate images and to unify the experts' criteria. BreastAnalyser was validated in representative human breast cancer immunohistochemistry images detecting various antigens. According to the automatic processing, the DAB-brown area was almost perfectly recognized, being the average difference between true and computer DAB-brown percentage lower than 0.7 points for all sets. The detection of nuclei allowed proper cell density relativization of the brown signal for comparison purposes between the different patients. BreastAnalyser obtained a score of 85.5 using the system usability scale questionnaire, which means that the tool is perceived as excellent by the experts. In the biomedical context, the connexin43 (Cx43) protein was found to be significantly downregulated in human core needle invasive breast cancer samples when compared to normal breast, with a trend to decrease as the subtype malignancy increased. Higher Cx43 protein levels were significantly associated to lower cancer recurrence risk in Oncotype DX-tested luminal B HER2- breast cancer tissues. BreastAnalyser and the annotated images are publically available https://citius.usc.es/transferencia/software/breastanalyser for research purposes.

Indexed as

Breast NeoplasmsAlgorithmsConnexin 43FemaleHumansImage Processing, Computer-AssistedNeoplasm Recurrence, LocalSoftwareConnexin 43

Identifiers

PMID38316810
PMCPMC10844656
OpenAlexW4391729461

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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.