Veronesi Giulia, Curti Nico, Gardini Aldo, Querzoli Giulia, Castellani Gastone, Dika Emi
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, 40126, Italy.
Oncologic Dermatology Unit, IRCCS, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Bologna, Bologna, 40138, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):21594. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02913-z.
Cutaneous melanoma is one of the most lethal forms of skin cancer, and its incidence is increasing globally. Its diagnosis typically relies on manual histopathological examination, a process that is both complex and time consuming. In this study, we propose an automated diagnostic tool, capable of generating interpretable results to aid clinical decision-making. A total of 146 whole slide images are included in the study, encompassing various lesion types: congenital nevi, dysplastic nevi, melanomas, and melanomas on nevi. The images were first processed using a multi-resolution image processing pipeline with the aim of segmenting nuclei, evaluating their geometrical and morphological features, as well as their spatial organization. To characterize each slide, these features were synthesized into 44 variables, which were then subjected to Linear Discriminant Analysis. Through this procedure, 18 relevant variables were identified demonstrating good performance in melanoma detection, as validated through Monte Carlo Cross-Validation. These variables were also interpreted within the framework of established histopathological diagnostic insights. By refining the analysis to the cellular level, we emulated standard clinical evaluation practices, ensuring that every aspect of the diagnostic process was accessible and verifiable by medical professionals. The proposed tool can offers significant potential to support clinicians in various tasks, such as prioritizing the analysis of critical samples and providing a secondary diagnostic opinion in complex cases.
皮肤黑色素瘤是最致命的皮肤癌形式之一,其全球发病率正在上升。其诊断通常依赖于人工组织病理学检查,这一过程既复杂又耗时。在本研究中,我们提出了一种自动化诊断工具,能够生成可解释的结果以辅助临床决策。该研究共纳入146张全切片图像,涵盖各种病变类型:先天性痣、发育异常痣、黑色素瘤以及痣上的黑色素瘤。这些图像首先使用多分辨率图像处理管道进行处理,目的是分割细胞核,评估其几何和形态特征以及空间组织。为了表征每张切片,这些特征被综合为44个变量,然后进行线性判别分析。通过这个过程,识别出18个相关变量,经蒙特卡洛交叉验证,这些变量在黑色素瘤检测中表现良好。这些变量也在既定的组织病理学诊断见解框架内得到了解释。通过将分析细化到细胞水平,我们模拟了标准的临床评估实践,确保诊断过程的每个方面都可供医学专业人员访问和验证。所提出的工具在支持临床医生完成各种任务方面具有巨大潜力,例如对关键样本的分析进行优先级排序以及在复杂病例中提供二次诊断意见。
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