Technique adapted to spot breast cancer cells

It was previously used to detect damaged surface areas on underwater marine structures, such as bridge piers, offshore wind-turbine platforms and pipelines.

A report on the new technique that identifies cancerous nuclei in breast cell images has been published in the leading journal, Plos One.

Current breast cancer clinical practice and treatment relies mainly on the evaluation of the disease’s prognosis using the Bloom-Richardson grading system.

The evaluation system is based on a pathologist’s visual examination of a tissue biopsy specimen under a microscope, but different pathologists may assign different grades to the same samples.

The development of digital pathology and fast digital- slide scanners opened the possibility of automating the prognosis by applying image-processing methods.

However, image-processing methods have struggled to analyse high-grade breast cancer cells that are often clustered together and have vague boundaries.

Assistant professor of civil engineering at Trinity College, Bidisha Ghosh, said the research group was able to draw on a broad and deep knowledge base to develop the new screening technique.

“Experts in numerical methods and image-processing liaised with medical pathologists who were able to offer expert insight and could tell us precisely what information was of value to them,” said Prof Ghosh.

“It is an excellent example of how multidisciplinary research collaborations can address important societal issues,” she said.

The head of the department of transfusion medicine and immunohematology from the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, Prof Joy John Mammen, described their work as a first step towards automating the breast imaging process.

The technique was developed in conjunction with mathematicians in Madras Christian College, India, led by Maqlin Paramanandam.

“The potential for this technology is very exciting, and we are delighted this international and inter-disciplinary team has worked so well at tackling a real bottle-neck in automating the diagnosis of breast cancer using histopathology images,” said Dr Paramanandam.

Meanwhile, the Irish Cancer Society is urging people to support the ‘Paint it Pink’ breast cancer campaign by holding a ‘pink’ event to raise funds for cancer research.

In 1976, fewer than half of women diagnosed with breast cancer survived the disease whereas now 85% of women survive breast cancer over five years. n www.paintitpink.ie.