Fractal Parameters of Tumour Microscopic Images as Prognostic Indicators of Clinical Outcome in Early Breast Cancer

摘要

Research in the field of breast cancer outcome prognosis has been focused on molecularbiomarkers, while neglecting the discovery of novel tumour histology structural clues. We thusaimed to improve breast cancer prognosis by fractal analysis of tumour histomorphology. Thisstudy included 92 breast cancer patients without systemic treatment. Fractal parametersfractaldimension and lacunarity of the breast tumour microscopic histology possess prognosticvalue comparable to the major clinicopathological prognostic parameters. Fractal analysis wasperformed for the first time on routinely produced archived pan-tissue stained primary breasttumour sections, indicating its potential for clinical use as a simple and cost-effectiveprognostic indicator of distant metastasis risk to complement the molecular approaches forcancer risk prognosis.