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Quantitative image analysis and data mining application will provide decision support for clinical oncologists

Definiens , the number one Health Image Intelligence® company, announced that it is developing a new software application to support the clinical diagnosis of breast cancer. This project is part of the company’s Health Image Intelligence initiative, in which it focuses on clinical applications that provide physicians with treatment recommendations, in this case based on detailed characteristics of tumor cells. The development is funded by the “KMU-innovativ” initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Automated image analysis of tissue structures and meaningful data aggregation can enhance physicians’ understanding of breast cancer by providing insight into functional and molecular genetic characterization of malignant tumors. The new clinical application will contain an image analysis-based evaluation algorithm which comprises scoring results from hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining; estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), KI67 and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) immunohistochemistry (IHC). HER2 silver in-situ hybridization (SISH) will be provided as an additional option.

“There is a growing need among pathologists and clinicians for accurate biomarker quantification tools that can support treatment decisions,” said Oliver Lehner, Vice President Clinical Solution Business at Definiens. “We started the project to provide doctors with accuracy and speed, an intuitive interface and efficient workflows they can easily integrate into their routines. Working closely with our clinical partner Charité Berlin, we expect this software application to help doctors treat breast cancer more successfully and avoid pursuing ineffective therapies.”

Definiens will work on digital slides obtained from patient samples provided by Prof. Dr. Manfred Dietel, Director of the Institute of Pathology, Charité Berlin. The system will perform a detailed assessment of cell morphology and biomarker expressions on a cell-by-cell basis. Prof. Dr. Dietel’s team will provide pathology expertise to be integrated into the Definiens software, enabling the computer to extract relevant patterns and scores from the images.

“A close collaboration between research and clinical disciplines enables physicians to draw upon new findings in functional molecular pathology when recommending treatment,” said Prof. Dr. Dietel. “Image analysis of breast cancer tissue structure and biomarker expression is a promising technology, and I am proud to be applying our findings to an objective approach to patient treatment.”

The Definiens application will provide the attending physician with a comprehensive and objective basis on which to recommend the most promising treatment. The software will be integrated into the clinical infrastructure by means of modular interfaces and offer a web-based graphical user interface that provides quick access to all relevant diagnostic information. It will have both in-clinic and telemedicine applications to support physician treatment decisions regardless of physical location.

Source: Definiens