Morphologic features of prostate cancer-encased native vessels: An image analysis study. Pathol Res Pract 2024 Apr;256:155239
Date
03/11/2024Pubmed ID
38461692DOI
10.1016/j.prp.2024.155239Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85187233730 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)Abstract
BACKGROUND: Vasculature plays a crucial role in the progression of prostate cancer (PC). Changes to the prostatic native vessels have not been studied since 2000 when Garcia et al. demonstrated marked media hypercellularity and increased artery thickness in prostatic native arteries within PC. We aim to further evaluate and characterize prostatic native vessels with a more accurate method with the use of virtual slides and digital analysis.
DESIGN: Pathologist-annotated whole-mount digital slides from 96 entirely submitted prostatectomies were annotated for PC (color-coded by Gleason) using Omero platform. A subset of 44 cases met criteria for further analysis of media thickness, cellularity, and wall thickness to lumen ratio. Cases were included based on containing ≥5 native arteries (≥100 µm diameter) encased on at least 3 sides by PC, with vessels (≥100 µm diameter) designated as controls if they were ≥ 1000 µm away from PC. Annotated vessels were segmented and processed using Matlab 2023b. Mean media thickness (corrected for oblique sections), media: lumen ratio (based on numbers of pixels), and media cellularity (nuclei count) were studied by analysis with SPSS by linear mixed model with nested random effects for subject and slide to account for repeated measures.
RESULTS: Vessels encased by PC showed greater media thickness (p=0.02), cellularity (p=0.02) and wall thickness/lumen ratio (p= <0.001) compared to vessels away from PC. These values showed an increasing trend according to stage in cellularity (p=0.14), media thickness (p=0.12) and wall thickness/ lumen ratio (p= 0.33) with higher stage (pT3). A Gleason group comparison showed a borderline-significant gradewise trend when analyzing wall thickness/lumen ratio (p=0.06). Grade 5 emerged as significantly different (p=0.02) from grades 3 or 4 non-cribriform.
CONCLUSIONS: Similar to the 2000 study, increased media thickness and hypercellularity of vessels encased by PC were evident compared to controls. Borderline grade-dependent increased vessel cellularity changes were seen, suggesting a possible role in PC progression; the predictive value of these changes for outcome is uncertain. Whether the etiology of changes reflects locally increased intravascular pressure of vessels within tumor should be investigated.
Author List
Fernandez Gonzalez De La Vega C, Duenweg S, Jain P, Rubenstein SI, Bobholz S, Barrett MJ, LaViolette PS, Iczkowski KAAuthor
Peter LaViolette PhD Professor in the Radiology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Cell NucleusHumans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Male
Prostate
Prostatectomy
Prostatic Neoplasms
