A whole-slide image grading benchmark and tissue classification for cervical cancer precursor lesions with inter-observer variability


Creative Commons License

Albayrak A., Akhan A. U., ÇALIK N., Çapar A., BİLGİN G., Töreyin B. U., ...More

MEDICAL & BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING & COMPUTING, vol.59, no.7-8, pp.1545-1561, 2021 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 59 Issue: 7-8
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s11517-021-02388-w
  • Journal Name: MEDICAL & BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING & COMPUTING
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ABI/INFORM, Applied Science & Technology Source, BIOSIS, Biotechnology Research Abstracts, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, Compendex, Computer & Applied Sciences, EMBASE, INSPEC, MEDLINE
  • Page Numbers: pp.1545-1561
  • Keywords: Cervical cancer, Human papillomavirus, Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), Squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL), Digital pathology, Whole-slide imaging, Histopathological images, Morphological features, Inter-observer variability, INTRAEPITHELIAL NEOPLASIA, DIAGNOSIS, P16
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The cervical cancer developing from the precancerous lesions caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) has been one of the preventable cancers with the help of periodic screening. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) are two types of grading conventions widely accepted by pathologists. On the other hand, inter-observer variability is an important issue for final diagnosis. In this paper, a whole-slide image grading benchmark for cervical cancer precursor lesions is created and the "Uterine Cervical Cancer Database" introduced in this article is the first publicly available cervical tissue microscopy image dataset. In addition, a morphological feature representing the angle between the basal membrane (BM) and the major axis of each nucleus in the tissue is proposed. The presence of papillae of the cervical epithelium and overlapping cell problems are also discussed. Besides that, the inter-observer variability is also evaluated by thorough comparisons among decisions of pathologists, as well as the final diagnosis.