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6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999 |
A028
Studies on relations between angiogenesis and tumour cell proliferation have
provided conflicting results. We therefore have investigated the relations
between the number and location of fully automatically identified CD31
positive microvessels and interactively segmented mitoses and necrotic
compartments by image processing in 10 breast cancers in "hot spots" and in
whole tumour sections. Microvessel and mitosis hot spots were topographically
close or overlapping and were always located at the periphery of the tumour.
The number of mitoses and microvessels per mm2 in the hot spot were strongly
correlated with the respective numbers in the whole tumour section, as well
as mutually. The ratio of the number of mitoses in the hot spot to the whole
tumour section was significantly higher than the microvessel ratio. Mitosis
were preferentially located at a distance of 50- 150 µm from microvessels.
No significant difference was found between the average distance between
mitoses and microvessels in the whole tumour sections and in the hot spot
(79 vs 72 µm), although considerable inter-tumour differences were found
(hot spot 43-106 µm, tumour 47-111 µm). The presence of necrotic areas
correlated with the number of mitoses per mm2 and necrosis was in general
observed at a distance >150 µm from the microvessels, suggesting that
necrotic areas have outgrown their vascular system. These results indicate
the usefulness of image processing of whole tumour sections for
identification of proliferation and vascularization hot spots which are
strong prognostic factors in breast cancer, and support the close
relationship between tumour necrosis and microvessels.
RELATIONS BETWEEN VASCULARIZATION AND PROLIFERATION IN INVASIVE BREAST
CANCER
Belién JAM, Van Diest PJ, Baak JPA
Department of Pathology, Academic Hospital Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands