Applications of machine and deep learning to thyroid cytology and histopathology: a review.

This review synthesises past research into how machine and deep learning can improve the cyto- and histopathology processing pipelines for thyroid cancer diagnosis. The current gold-standard preoperative technique of fine-needle aspiration cytology has high interobserver variability, often returns indeterminate samples and cannot reliably identify some pathologies; histopathology analysis addresses these issues to an extent, but it requires surgical resection of the suspicious lesions so cannot influence preoperative decisions. Motivated by these issues, as well as by the chronic shortage of trained pathologists, much research has been conducted into how artificial intelligence could improve current pipelines and reduce the pressure on clinicians. Many past studies have indicated the significant potential of automated image analysis in classifying thyroid lesions, particularly for those of papillary thyroid carcinoma, but these have generally been retrospective, so questions remain about both the practical efficacy of these automated tools and the realities of integrating them into clinical workflows. Furthermore, the nature of thyroid lesion classification is significantly more nuanced in practice than many current studies have addressed, and this, along with the heterogeneous nature of processing pipelines in different laboratories, means that no solution has proven itself robust enough for clinical adoption. There are, therefore, multiple avenues for future research: examine the practical implementation of these algorithms as pathologist decision-support systems; improve interpretability, which is necessary for developing trust with clinicians and regulators; and investigate multiclassification on diverse multicentre datasets, aiming for methods that demonstrate high performance in a process- and equipment-agnostic manner

2023 Summer Experience Program Abstracts

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp23/1130/thumbnail.jp

Establishment of a cell-based anti-prion compound screen and analysis of host response to prion infection in cerebellar organotypic slice cultures

Prions are unconventional infectious agents that cause always fatal neurodegenerative diseases termed prion disease or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in mammals. Prion diseases are caused by an accumulation of the misfolded, aggregated host encoded prion protein (PrP). The normal, cellular, α-helix rich isoform (PrPC) is converted into the disease-associated β-sheet rich pathogenic isoform (PrPSc). PrPSc can adopt multiple conformations that likely encipher prion strain characteristics. Currently, prion therapeutic clinical trials lack success and there is an urgent need for novel therapeutics. The aim of this study was to develop a cell-based assay for high content screening of large compound libraries with an automated microscope to identify compounds that might impair prion replication. Furthermore, identified compounds should be tested on prion infected organotypic slice cultures to test whether in vitro detected anti-prion compounds are also effective in a more complex neuronal environment. Additionally, two promising compounds, FeTMPyP and PIM-B31, identified by our collaboration partner Emiliano Biasini (University of Trento), were tested ex vivo. Beside this a comparative study of host response between ex vivo and in vivo should evaluate the transferability between the two systems, as this has not been was not shown until now. In the established screen 152 compounds were tested, 84 had an inhibitory effect on PrPSc accumulation in persistently infected N2a22L cells and the seven strongest inhibitors were further validated by western blot analysis. The most promising candidate, PHA665752, was tested ex vivo and showed a reduction of PrPSc accumulation that was however not significant. FeTMPyP showed strong toxicity and PIM-B31 showed inconsistent results that depended on different concentration and strain-specificity. Beside this, pathway analysis of ex vivo and in vivo infected mouse cerebella with different strains at various time points was performed with DAVID 6.8, an online bioinformatics resource. Analysis of the 250 most significant differentially expressed genes revealed that several comparable pathways were changed due to prion infection in brain slices and brains. The calcium signaling pathways and neuroactive ligand-receptor pathways were deregulated the most by prion infection ex vivo as well as in vivo

Polyphenols for Cancer Treatment or Prevention

Polyphenols are commonly found in fruits and vegetables, and have been suggested to have protective effects against chronic diseases, such as cancers. They are a diverse group of molecules, many of which possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, epigenetic, drug sensitization, and/or modulation of xenobiotic metabolizing enzyme properties. However, there is mixed evidence regarding their protective effects with respect to various cancers. Some of this controversy may be due to the combination of polyphenols administered, synergistic effects of accompanying compounds, bio-accessibility, bioavailability, effect of gut microbiota, and the type of cancer investigated. The purpose of this Special Issue is to present the recent evidence for the effect of polyphenol intake on cancer, as well as mechanisms of action. This Special Issue, entitled "Polyphenols for Cancer Treatment or Prevention", welcomes manuscript submissions of original research, meta-analyses, or reviews of the scientific literature. Authors should focus their manuscripts on polyphenol bioactives or dietary patterns naturally rich in polyphenols that have been identified and used for the prevention and or treatment of cancer