Department of Gynecology-Oncology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Microsc Res Tech. 2022 Mar;85(3):892-899. doi: 10.1002/jemt.23958. Epub 2021 Oct 9.
Serous ovarian tumors may originate in epithelial cells of the fallopian tubes. Computerized morphometry was able to find significant alterations in the fallopian tube epithelium of healthy BRCA carriers. The purpose of this study was to identify a subgroup of BRCA carriers that may be at risk of developing serous ovarian cancer by evaluation of the epithelial nuclear symmetry in the fallopian tubes. Four groups of patients were analyzed; healthy patients, ovarian cancer patients, BRCA carriers, and BRCA noncarriers. All fallopian tubes appeared normal by H&E examination. The ImageProPlus software was used to assess the nuclear symmetry of 65 fimbriae epithelium cells and an artificial neural network algorithm aided in detecting a subpopulation among fimbriae of healthy BRCA carriers at risk for ovarian cancer. Significant differences were found between healthy patients and ovarian cancer patients, and between BRCA carriers and noncarriers. The algorithm was able to accurately predict BRCA carriers with associated ovarian cancer based on fallopian tube nuclear symmetry characteristics. These results reinforce the hypothesis that fimbriae epithelial cells of BRCA carriers may undergo early-stage changes that could predict the risk of progression toward malignancy.
浆液性卵巢肿瘤可能起源于输卵管的上皮细胞。计算机形态计量学能够发现健康 BRCA 携带者输卵管上皮的显著变化。本研究的目的是通过评估输卵管上皮细胞核的对称性，确定一组可能有发生浆液性卵巢癌风险的 BRCA 携带者亚群。分析了四组患者；健康患者、卵巢癌患者、BRCA 携带者和 BRCA 非携带者。所有输卵管均通过 H&E 检查显示正常。使用 ImageProPlus 软件评估 65 个输卵管伞端上皮细胞的核对称性，人工神经网络算法有助于检测出健康 BRCA 携带者输卵管伞端中卵巢癌高危亚群。健康患者与卵巢癌患者之间，BRCA 携带者与非携带者之间存在显著差异。该算法能够基于输卵管核对称性特征准确预测与卵巢癌相关的 BRCA 携带者。这些结果支持这样的假设，即 BRCA 携带者的输卵管上皮细胞可能发生早期变化，这些变化可以预测向恶性进展的风险。
