Development of a Computational Histology Artificial Intelligence-Powered Prognostic Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer in The Cancer Genome Atlas

Résumé fourni par la source

Background: Risk stratification in colorectal cancer (CRC) plays an important role in treatment decision-making. As such, prognostic biomarkers that can augment risk stratification have clinical value. Quantitative histologic features from routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained whole slide images (WSIs) provide a novel avenue for biomarker discovery. In this study, we explored the potential for a computational histology artificial intelligence (CHAI) platform to develop and validate a prognostic biomarker in CRC. Methods: The Cancer Genome Atlas Colorectal Adenocarcinoma project was utilized for this study, with inclusion of all subjects (stage I–IV) with available digitized H&E specimens. The cohort was split into development and validation cohorts by a stratified random split. The previously developed CHAI platform was applied in the development cohort to construct a continuous risk score from histologic features associated with progression-free interval (PFI) that was dichotomized based on an optimized cutpoint for distinguishing PFI into a high risk CHAI (+) and lower risk CHAI (–). PFI was compared between CHAI (+) and CHAI (–) patients in the validation cohort in multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Time-dependent area under the curve (tdAUC) and C-indices were also calculated for PFI. Results: A total of 583 participants were included in the study, with 409 assigned to the validation cohort. The CHAI biomarker classified 229 participants (56%) as CHAI (+) and 180 (44%) as CHAI (–) in the validation set. CHAI (+) participants had worse PFI in a multivariable analysis adjusting for available clinicopathologic variables (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.65; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.63–4.30). TdAUC for the CHAI biomarker was 0.60 (95% CI, 0.53–0.67) at 12 months, 0.62 (0.55–0.69) at 36 months, and 0.67 (0.55–0.79) at 60 months; the C-index was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.58–0.67). Conclusions: The CHAI platform was used to develop a prognostic digital pathology biomarker in CRC. This demonstrates the feasibility and potential to apply this artificial intelligence-based digital pathology biomarker platform for risk stratification in CRC and supports its further study.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.