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Pitfalls in machine learning-based assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer: a report of the international immuno-oncology biomarker working group

Thagaard, J; Broeckx, G; Page, DB; Jahangir, CA; Verbandt, S; Kos, Z; Gupta, R; ... Reis-Filho, JS; + view all (2023) Pitfalls in machine learning-based assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer: a report of the international immuno-oncology biomarker working group. Journal of Pathology , 260 (5) pp. 498-513. 10.1002/path.6155. Green open access

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Abstract

The clinical significance of the tumor-immune interaction in breast cancer is now established, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have emerged as predictive and prognostic biomarkers for patients with triple-negative (estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2-negative) breast cancer and HER2-positive breast cancer. How computational assessments of TILs might complement manual TIL assessment in trial and daily practices is currently debated. Recent efforts to use machine learning (ML) to automatically evaluate TILs have shown promising results. We review state-of-the-art approaches and identify pitfalls and challenges of automated TIL evaluation by studying the root cause of ML discordances in comparison to manual TIL quantification. We categorize our findings into four main topics: (1) technical slide issues, (2) ML and image analysis aspects, (3) data challenges, and (4) validation issues. The main reason for discordant assessments is the inclusion of false-positive areas or cells identified by performance on certain tissue patterns or design choices in the computational implementation. To aid the adoption of ML for TIL assessment, we provide an in-depth discussion of ML and image analysis, including validation issues that need to be considered before reliable computational reporting of TILs can be incorporated into the trial and routine clinical management of patients with triple-negative breast cancer. © 2023 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Type: Article
Title: Pitfalls in machine learning-based assessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer: a report of the international immuno-oncology biomarker working group
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/path.6155
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/path.6155
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Keywords: Deep learning, digital pathology, guidelines, image analysis, machine learning, pitfalls, prognostic biomarker, triple-negative breast cancer, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Cancer Institute
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Cancer Institute > Research Department of Oncology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10176308
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