METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TESTING A PROGRESSION OF NEOPLASIA INCLUDING CANCER CHEMOPREVENTION TESTING

摘要

A system is provided for analysis of neoplasia in tissue at a very early stage as well as later stages of its progression and for reporting the progression or regression of the neoplasia. The system performs multi- parametric measurements of the morphological structure and texture of the tissue structure and correlates these measurements on a common morphological grading scale. The system performs certain tissue measurements which are more highly discriminating for one kind of neoplasia and performs other tissue measurement, which are more highly discriminating, for another kind of neoplasia. Diverse tissue measurements may be made on diverse tissue types such as breast, colon, or cervix tissue, etc. from animals or humans which tissue has subjected to different carcinogens or chemopreventive agents. The measurements are made in different units and on different scales; and then these measurements are combined and reported on a valid, objective, common, universal scale. Microscopic images of stained neoplastic tissue sections are optically and microscopically scanned to provide electronic tissue sample images that are electronically recorded. Then, morphometric features of tissue sample images are measured in first unit vales and texture measurements of the tissue samples, such as a Markovian texture measurement. Usually, normal tissue samples and abnormal cancerous tissue samples are analyzed using the same morphometric and texture measurements and their respective results are reported onto a grading common scale so that progression of the cancer can be ascertained relative to the normal tissue.