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@ARTICLE{Dragomir:302021,
author = {M.-P. Dragomir$^*$ and V. Popovici and S. Schallenberg and
M. Čarnogurská and D. Horst$^*$ and R. Nenutil and F.
Bosman and E. Budinská},
title = {{A} quantitative tumor-wide analysis of morphological
heterogeneity of colorectal adenocarcinoma.},
journal = {The journal of pathology: clinical research},
volume = {11},
number = {4},
issn = {2056-4538},
address = {Chichester},
publisher = {Wiley},
reportid = {DKFZ-2025-01219},
pages = {e70034},
year = {2025},
abstract = {The intertumoral and intratumoral heterogeneity of
colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC) at the morphologic level is
poorly understood. Previously, we identified morphological
patterns associated with CRC molecular subtypes and their
distinct molecular motifs. Here we aimed to evaluate the
heterogeneity of these patterns across CRC. Three
pathologists evaluated dominant, secondary, and tertiary
morphology on four sections from four different FFPE blocks
per tumor in a pilot set of 22 CRCs. An AI-based image
analysis tool was trained on these tumors to evaluate the
morphologic heterogeneity on an extended set of 161 stage
I-IV primary CRCs (n = 644 $H\&E$ sections). We found that
most tumors had two or three different dominant morphotypes
and the complex tubular (CT) morphotype was the most common.
The CT morphotype showed no combinatorial preferences.
Desmoplastic (DE) morphotype was rarely dominant and rarely
combined with other dominant morphotypes. Mucinous (MU)
morphotype was mostly combined with solid/trabecular (TB)
and papillary (PP) morphotypes. Most tumors showed medium or
high heterogeneity, but no associations were found between
heterogeneity and clinical parameters. A higher proportion
of DE morphotype was associated with higher T-stage,
N-stage, distant metastases, AJCC stage, and shorter overall
survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS). A higher
proportion of MU morphotype was associated with higher
grade, right side, and microsatellite instability (MSI). PP
morphotype was associated with earlier T- and N-stage,
absence of metastases, and improved OS and RFS. CT was
linked to left side, lower grade, and better survival in
stage I-III patients. MSI tumors showed higher proportions
of MU and TB, and lower CT and PP morphotypes. These
findings suggest that morphological shifts accompany tumor
progression and highlight the need for extensive sampling
and AI-based analysis. In conclusion, we observed
unexpectedly high intratumoral morphological heterogeneity
of CRC and found that it is not heterogeneity per se, but
the proportions of morphologies that are associated with
clinical outcomes.},
keywords = {AI‐based image analysis (Other) / colorectal cancer
(Other) / heterogeneity (Other) / morphology (Other)},
cin = {BE01},
ddc = {610},
cid = {I:(DE-He78)BE01-20160331},
pnm = {899 - ohne Topic (POF4-899)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-899},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
pubmed = {pmid:40511583},
doi = {10.1002/2056-4538.70034},
url = {https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/302021},
}