Validation of cancer cell morphological diversity-based prognostic biomarkers

Principal Investigator

Name
Ruijiang Li

Degrees
PhD

Institution
Stanford University

Position Title
Associate Professor

Email
rli2@stanford.edu

About this CDAS Project

Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)

Project ID
PLCOI-1413

Initial CDAS Request Approval
Dec 11, 2023

Title
Validation of cancer cell morphological diversity-based prognostic biomarkers

Summary
Intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) is a universal phenomenon observed in all cancer types. It is well established that ITH drives disease progression and therapeutic resistance, which leads to poor survival outcomes in patients. ITH at the genetic level has been extensively investigated and can be measured using whole-genome sequencing or single-cell molecular profiling technologies. The practical application is challenging, however, due to several issues including the need for high-quality tissue, complexity, and cost. In a recent study published in the JNCI, we developed a computational approach for quantitative evaluation of cancer cell morphological diversity in routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained histopathology images. We integrated two distinct measures of ITH: inter-cellular diversity, and intra-cellular heterogeneity. We further proposed a cancer cell diversity score and evaluated the prognostic significance across four different tumor types. Here, we propose to validate the cancer cell morphological diversity-based prognostic biomarkers using prospectively collected PLCO data.

Aims

Aim 1. We will apply machine learning techniques to compute the cancer cell morphological diversity scores from digitized H&E-stained slides.
Aim 2. We will evaluate the prognostic value of the diversity scores by associating with outcomes in multiple cancer types from PLCO patient cohorts.

Collaborators

Xiyue Wang, Stanford University