Pathohistological diagnosis of infiltration and metastasis of tongue carcinoma : Three-dimensional analysis of tumor cell atypia and alveolar architecture

我们启动了基于组织学的口腔鳞状细胞癌(SCC)的三维重建，以收集关于癌症侵袭和预后的诊断价值的定量信息。三维重建的基本程序是：准备连续的组织切片，结合感兴趣的细胞/组织成分的免疫染色，数字化图像的排列和叠加，以及标记目标的计算机辅助彩色分割。单个SCC细胞的胞浆/胞核分割导致了组织学参数的定量分析。这些结果支持了基于组织学的三维重建在肿瘤生物学理解和病理诊断中的广泛应用和优势。特别是，有关肿瘤肺泡结构和癌灶在微环境中的空间分布的三维组织形态计量学参数将在预测和诊断肿瘤侵袭性和恶性方面具有廉价的价值。

We initiated histology-based 3D reconstruction of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) arising on the lateral border of the tongue in order to collect quantitative information of diagnostic value regarding cancer invasion and prognosis. The basic procedures for 3D reconstruction are: preparation of serial histological sections in combination with immunostaining of cell/tissue constituents of interest, alignment and superposition of digitized images, and computer-assisted color segmentation of labeled targets. Cytoplasm/nucleus segmentation of individual SCC cells lead to quantitative analysis of histological parameters. The results support the wide potential usage and advantage of histology-based 3D reconstruction in cancer biology understanding and pathological diagnosis. Particularly, 3D histomorphometric parameters regarding tumor alveolar structure and spatial distribution of cancer foci in a microenvironment will be of inexpensive value in prediction and diagnosis of tumor aggressiveness and malignancy.