Quantification of Histological Neoplastic Cells Using Digital Image Processing

One of the most important steps to determine the appropriate treatment for patients with breast cancer is the assessment of the hormone receptors status, which is done, most of the times, through the methodology of immunohistochemistry (IHQ). This technique allows the identification of cells with positive hormone receptor; therefore, they are effective to the hormone treatment, which when associated to other therapies, increases life expectancy to the patients. The qualitative and quantitative assessment of these receptors is done based on an analogic form; consequently, the results may vary and may be also subjective. With the technology’s advance, it is possible to automate, besides preparing exams, interpreting them, being beneficial to various patients and achieving more straightforward results. To do so, this research paper proposes the development of an imaging-processing tool for digital histological slides, with the quantification of the nuclei of the neoplastic cells in the histological sections. With the proposed method, we achieved reasonable results that were additionally validated by a pathologist, proving the efficiency of the method (about 5% of difference). The main achievement of such method is to be low-cost if compared with newly expensive technological approaches.