Feature Identification for Colon Tumor Classification

Abstract

Abstract. Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) has been shown to be increased in the tumor microenvironment due to increased secretion by cancer-associated stromal cells. Qualitatively, high extracellular HGF has been correlated with increased growth and dispersiveness of a tumor. In this study, we develop quantitative methods to measure HGF-induced tumor growth and dispersion. Using image processing and machine learning techniques, we effectively classify images of colon cancer tumor spheroids cultured in +/-HGF conditions. Our goals are to define features that are effective for classification and to further help biologists quantify the effect of HGF on tumor spheroids.