Abstract 2113: Discrimination of benign breast disease from normal lobules using an automated computational pathology algorithm
Authors: Degnim Amy C. , de Bel Thomas , Sherman Mark E. , Radisky Derek C. , Winham Stacey J. , Hoskin Tanya L. , Mann Melody L. Stallings , Frost Marlene , Vierkant Robert A. , Broderick Brendan T. , Heinzen Ethan P. , Brahmbhatt Rushin , Arshad Muhammad , Vachon Celine M. , Carter Jodi M. , Denison Lori A. , Visscher Daniel W. , van der Laak Jeroen 
Published: September 2020

Background: Biopsy diagnosis of benign breast disease (BBD) based on the most severe lesion in a sample predicts future breast cancer risk and has implications for screening and management. Lobules are the functional unit of the breast and the structures from which BBD arises. We developed and preliminarily validated an automated computational pathology algorithm to discriminate normal from BBD breast lobules as a step toward automated comprehensive characterization of benign biopsies.

Methods: 152 BBD biopsies (27 training, 125 validation) from the Mayo Clinic were examined using scanned digital images of H&E stained sections. For each image, a pathologist annotated up to 10 representative lobules as normal or BBD using standard pathology criteria. A deep learning algorithm to quantify lobular features was developed using 129 lobules from 27 subjects. Nine features were identified that discriminate normal vs BBD lobules, expressing lobule size, acini size and number, acinar lumen size, proportion of lobular stroma, and capillaries. Here, we validate their performance to discriminate normal vs BBD lobules in a set of 1250 lobules from 125 subjects using area under the ROC curve (AUC) analysis. Random forest analysis was used for multivariable modeling; model performance was assessed with a tenfold cross-validation approach.

Results: Median subject age was 52 years. Among the 125 validation subjects, BBD findings were nonproliferative in 39%, proliferative in 45%, and atypical hyperplasia in 16%. Sections included 552 (44%) normal lobules and 698 BBD (56%) lobules, with representation of both lobule types on each section. In univariate analyses, four individual features showed good discrimination between normal vs. BBD lobules, yielding the following AUCs: lobule size= 0.74, mean acini size= 0.75, epithelial area= 0.75, and number of acini with large lumens= 0.76. Lobule size and epithelial area were highly correlated (Spearman rank correlation r = 0.95), but both of these features showed lower correlation with mean acini size and number of acini with large lumens (each r &lt; 0.5). With random forest modeling, number of acini with large lumens was the strongest discriminating feature, followed by mean acini size, lobule size, and epithelial area. With ten-fold cross validation of the multivariable random forest model, the overall AUC was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.79-0.85).

Conclusion: Our validation showed that automated quantitative computational pathology assessment of breast lobules can discriminate normal versus BBD on a per lobule basis. This finding supports the feasibility of developing automated algorithms to classify every lesion in breast biopsies, expanding beyond visual assessment. Further studies using deep learning may reveal novel pathology features for classifying BBD biopsies with the potential to strengthen estimation of breast cancer risk.

Citation Format: Amy C. Degnim, Thomas de Bel, Mark E. Sherman, Derek C. Radisky, Stacey J. Winham, Tanya L. Hoskin, Melody L. Stallings Mann, Marlene Frost, Robert A. Vierkant, Brendan T. Broderick, Ethan P. Heinzen, Rushin Brahmbhatt, Muhammad Arshad, Celine M. Vachon, Jodi M. Carter, Lori A. Denison, Daniel W. Visscher, Jeroen van der Laak. Discrimination of benign breast disease from normal lobules using an automated computational pathology algorithm [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 2113.