Abstract 1630: The utility of the online pathologist network for cancer research
Authors: Cheng Ke , Gibson Christoper 
Published: August 2019

Introduction: Pathologic review of tumors is critical to understand what type of cancer is present, changes in the immune microenvironment, and assess for the presence of necrosis. Simultaneously, in animals treated with immunotherapeutic agents, the assessment of the presence of abnormal inflammation and corresponding tissue damage in normal organs is of the utmost importance to measure a medication’s potential side effect profile. The current problem is that most researchers do not have the skill in interpreting histology that pathologists have, barring them from the above histologic observations. This is compounded by the fact that most pathologists have busy clinical schedules and even if they wanted to help a research study, they do not have access to researchers. Another issue is that, even if researchers and pathologists could be connected, there is the issue of compensation. If an online platform could be constructed where researchers can connect to pathologists and pathologists can connect to researchers to help them interpret their slides with equitable compensation, the quality of histologic interpretation of research materials would increase. With improved slide interpretation quality, researchers would more rapidly know which experimental paths have potential and which should be avoided based on unfavorable histology.

Methods: To build this platform we used our histology business where wet tissue is converted to digital scanned slides and offered the pathologist consultation service to our customers. Researcher requests for pathology assistance were first screened by a board-certified pathologist (AB) for addressability by pathologists. When histology questions were deemed answerable by pathology, pathologists on Histowiz’s remote pathologist network reviewed the slides and generated reports in 3 days that were then sent to the researchers.

Results: Between February and September 2018 there were 60 online consultations performed at HistoWiz. Nearly half (25/60) of the studies involved measuring inflammation in mouse organs. Only one study asked for tumor grading, one study asked for tumor percentage estimation, and two studies asked for tumor type identification. The remaining studies were for miscellaneous requests such as mast cell counting, GVHD measurement, coronary atherosclerosis measurement, organ damage assessment (skin: 6, small intestine: 1, lung: 3, brain: 2, cartilage: 2, liver: 2), IHC suitability assay, differences between WT and KO mice, and toxicology after chemical treatment of mice.

Conclusions: It is possible to build a platform whereby pathologists assist researchers through remote review of their scanned slides. In 7 months of this service, nearly half of the researcher requests were for assessment of inappropriate inflammation. Less requested services included tumor grading, tumor percentage estimation, and tumor type identification.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting.

Citation Format: Ke Cheng, Christoper Gibson. The utility of the online pathologist network for cancer research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1630.