Abstract
The progression of epithelial precancers into cancer is accompanied by changes of tissue and cellular structures in the epithelium. Correlations between the structural changes and scattering coefficients of esophageal epithelia were investigated using quantitative phase images and the scattering-phase theorem. An ex vivo study of 14 patients demonstrated that the average scattering coefficient of precancerous epithelia was 37.8% higher than that of normal epithelia from the same patient. The scattering coefficients were highly correlated with morphological features including the cell density and the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio. A high interpatient variability in scattering coefficients was observed and suggests identifying precancerous lesions based on the relative change in scattering coefficients.
Highlights
Dysplasia is a histological precursor of cancers originating from stratified squamous epithelia
We investigated the epithelial tissue in two groups based on the pathological diagnoses: the normal group including normal and mild dysplasia, and the precancerous group including moderate dysplasia and severe dysplasia
The results demonstrate that for the same patient the scattering coefficients of esophageal epithelia are highly correlated with the cell density and nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio (N/C)
Summary
Dysplasia is a histological precursor of cancers originating from stratified squamous epithelia. The cancerization is often accompanied by subcellular structural transformation such as enlarged nuclei, an increased nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio (N/C), and irregularly shaped and hyperchromatic nuclei in the epithelium [1,2,3]. These features are used to identify precancerous lesions in current histopathological diagnoses for which part of the tissue shall be removed. The actual RI values and distributions of cellular structures in the epithelium are unknown These numerical methods are not suitable to quantify the scattering coefficients of real tissue specimens
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