Quantification and Characterization of CTCs and Clusters in Pancreatic Cancer by Means of the Hough Transform Algorithm

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 24; no. 5; p. 4278
• Main Authors: Calero-Castro, Francisco José, Pereira, Sheila, Laga, Imán, Villanueva, Paula, Suárez-Artacho, Gonzalo, Cepeda-Franco, Carmen, de la Cruz-Ojeda, Patricia, Navarro-Villarán, Elena, Dios-Barbeito, Sandra, Serrano, María José, Fresno, Cristóbal, Padillo-Ruiz, Javier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21-02-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; Algorithms; Antigens; Automation; Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism; Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal - pathology; CD45 antigen; Cells; circulating tumor cell; cluster; Correlation; Cytokeratin; Hough transform; Hough transformation; Humans; Medical prognosis; Metastasis; Microscopy; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating - pathology; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic Neoplasms; Pancreatic Neoplasms - pathology; Patients; Prognosis; Tumor cells; cluster; circulating tumor cell; pancreatic cancer; Hough transform
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24054278

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are considered a prognostic marker in pancreatic cancer. In this study we present a new approach for counting CTCs and CTC clusters in patients with pancreatic cancer using the Isoflux
System with the Hough transform algorithm (Hough-Isoflux
). The Hough-Isoflux
approach is based on the counting of an array of pixels with a nucleus and cytokeratin expression excluding the CD45 signal. Total CTCs including free and CTC clusters were evaluated in healthy donor samples mixed with pancreatic cancer cells (PCCs) and in samples from patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The Isoflux
System with manual counting was used in a blinded manner by three technicians who used Manual-Isoflux
as a reference. The accuracy of the Hough-Isoflux
approach for detecting PCC based on counted events was 91.00% [84.50, 93.50] with a PCC recovery rate of 80.75 ± 16.41%. A high correlation between the Hough-Isoflux
and Manual-Isoflux
was observed for both free CTCs and for clusters in experimental PCC (R
= 0.993 and R
= 0.902 respectively). However, the correlation rate was better for free CTCs than for clusters in PDAC patient samples (R
= 0.974 and R
= 0.790 respectively). In conclusion, the Hough-Isoflux
approach showed high accuracy for the detection of circulating pancreatic cancer cells. A better correlation rate was observed between Hough-Isoflux
approach and with the Manual-Isoflux
for isolated CTCs than for clusters in PDAC patient samples.