Use of automated microscopy for the detection of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow samples

• Published in: Cytometry (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2001-08, Vol.46 (4), p.215-221
• Main Authors: Borgen, Elin, Naume, Bjørn, Nesland, Jahn M., Nowels, Kent W., Pavlak, Nancy, Ravkin, Ilya, Goldbard, Simon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: automated microscopy; automated screening; bone marrow; Bone Marrow Examination - instrumentation; Bone Marrow Examination - methods; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; carcinoma; Carcinoma - diagnosis; Carcinoma - secondary; disseminated tumor cell; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Immunohistochemistry; Mass Screening - instrumentation; Mass Screening - methods; micrometastasis; neoplasm metastasis; Neoplasm Metastasis - diagnosis; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Single-Blind Method; Tumor Cells, Cultured
• ISSN: 0196-4763; 1097-0320
• DOI: 10.1002/cyto.1130

The use of automated microscopy has reached the maturity necessary for its routine use in the clinical pathology laboratory. In the following study we compared the performance of an automated microscope system (MDS™) with manual method for the detection and analysis of disseminated tumor cells present in bone marrow preparations from breast carcinoma patients. The MDS System detected rare disseminated tumor cells among bone marrow mononuclear cells with higher sensitivity than standard manual microscopy. Automated microscopy also proved to be a method of high reproducibility and precision, the advantage of which was clearly illustrated by problems of variability in manual screening. Accumulated results from two pathologists who had screened 120 clinical slides from breast cancer patients both by manual microscopy and by use of the MDS System revealed only two (3.8%) missed by the automatic procedure, whereas as many as 20 out of 52 positive samples (38%) were missed by manual screening. Cytometry (Comm. Clin. Cytometry) 46:215–221, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.