Intra-Tumour Heterogeneity Is One of the Main Sources of Inter-Observer Variation in Scoring Stromal Tumour Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11150%2F21%3A10432752" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11150/21:10432752 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00179906:_____/21:10432752

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Pl-Vg0EJpj" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=Pl-Vg0EJpj</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174410" target="_blank" >10.3390/cancers13174410</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Intra-Tumour Heterogeneity Is One of the Main Sources of Inter-Observer Variation in Scoring Stromal Tumour Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Original language description

Simple Summary The stromal tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) within a tumour are a strong predictor of outcome for patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the assessment of sTILs is subject to variation and needs to be standardized in order for it to be used more widely as a biomarker. The aim of this study was to determine the level of consistency that can be achieved when an internet-based scoring aid is used to assist with evaluation of sTILs. Twenty-three breast pathologists across Europe scored sTILs in 49 cases of TNBC taken from a routine diagnostic practice using this aid. The consistency of scoring sTILs was good. However, variation in the distribution of sTILs within the tumour resulted in discordance between pathologists scoring cases, particularly as it caused variability in the selection of regions of the tumour to score. More rigorous training of pathologists is needed for standardization of sTILs assessment, which may potentially be improved using automated approaches. Stromal tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are a strong prognostic marker in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Consistency scoring sTILs is good and was excellent when an internet-based scoring aid developed by the TIL-WG was used to score cases in a reproducibility study. This study aimed to evaluate the reproducibility of sTILs assessment using this scoring aid in cases from routine practice and to explore the potential of the tool to overcome variability in scoring. Twenty-three breast pathologists scored sTILs in digitized slides of 49 TNBC biopsies using the scoring aid. Subsequently, fields of view (FOV) from each case were selected by one pathologist and scored by the group using the tool. Inter-observer agreement was good for absolute sTILs (ICC 0.634, 95% CI 0.539-0.735, p &lt; 0.001) but was poor to fair using binary cutpoints. sTILs heterogeneity was the main contributor to disagreement. When pathologists scored the same FOV from each case, inter-observer agreement was excellent for absolute sTILs (ICC 0.798, 95% CI 0.727-0.864, p &lt; 0.001) and good for the 20% (ICC 0.657, 95% CI 0.561-0.756, p &lt; 0.001) and 40% (ICC 0.644, 95% CI 0.546-0.745, p &lt; 0.001) cutpoints. However, there was a wide range of scores for many cases. Reproducibility scoring sTILs is good when the scoring aid is used. Heterogeneity is the main contributor to variance and will need to be overcome for analytic validity to be achieved.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

30204 - Oncology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Cancers

ISSN

2072-6694

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

13

Issue of the periodical within the volume

17

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

16

Pages from-to

4410

UT code for WoS article

000694186300001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85114345188