The tumour histopathology “glossary” for AI developers
Fig 2
The morphology of “cancer,” HE.
(A) Nonneoplastic epithelium (left) versus adenocarcinoma glands/cells (right, separated by dotted line) in a The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) sample of colorectal adenocarcinoma (COAD, TCGA-A6-2678). Dashed inset (corresponding to the dashed rectangle): Higher magnification showing malignant COAD glands with malignant nuclear features and a focus of “dirty” necrosis within the cancer gland (asterisk). Insets: On the one hand, enterocytes (e, colonic epithelium) with regular contours, polarised towards the lumen with a goblet (mucus-containing) cell (G) on top. On the other hand, cancer cell (c) with a prominent nucleolus (cross), large size and irregular contours. Arrow: Regular colonic crypts, rich in goblet cells (arrow on goblet cell). Arrowhead: High-grade dysplasia at the surface mucosa. (B) Tumour parenchyma (red) and tumour stroma (blue, green) in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD, TCGA-2J-AAB6). PAAD glands are surrounded by dense “desmoplasia” (blue, inset) with pinkish collagen deposition (black arrowhead) and immune cell infiltrate (green, inset), mainly lymphocytes (white arrowheads) among microvessels (arrows). (C) Phenotype of invasion. From left to right: Invasive breast cancer (BRCA) clusters (BRCA, TCGA-3C-AALJ), prostatic adenocarcinoma (PRAD, TCGA-EJ-7792) glands with loss of basal cell layer (arrows: benign prostatic parenchyma), invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix (CESC, TCGA-C5-A7XC) with adjacent high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL, white asterisk) and of the head and neck region (HNSC, TCGA-BA-4076). See Table 2 and section “The hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stain” for further description. Asterisks: Surface squamous epithelium, arrowheads: invasive SC. Crosses: Extracellular matrix/stroma between BRCA clusters.