Morphoproteomic Characterization of Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma Fragmentation, a Histological Marker of Increased Tumor Invasiveness

In this study, we used an image-based computational method on pan-cytokeratin IHC stainings to quantify tumor fragmentation (TF), a measure of tumor invasiveness of lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). In two independent clinical cohorts from tissue microarrays (TMA: n = 208 patients) and whole sections (WS: n = 99 patients), TF was associated with poor prognosis and increased risk of blood vessel infiltration. A third cohort from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA: n = 335 patients) confirmed the poor prognostic value of TF using a similar human-based score on hematoxylin-eosin staining. Integration of RNA-seq data from TCGA and LC-MS/MS proteomics from WS revealed an upregulation of extracellular matrix remodeling and focal adhesion processes in tumors with high TF, supporting their increased invasive potential. This proposed histologic parameter is an independent and unfavorable prognostic marker that could be established as a new grading parameter for LSCC. Cancer Res; 77(10); 2585–93. ©2017 AACR.

Source: Cancer Research - May 14, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Ruben Casanova, Daniel Xia, Undine Rulle, Paolo Nanni, Jonas Grossmann, Bart Vrugt, Reto Wettstein, Rafael Ballester, Alberto Astolfo, Walter Weder, Holger Moch, Marco Stampanoni, Andrew H. Beck, Alex Soltermann Tags: Integrated Systems and Technologies Source Type: research