Image analysis discloses differences in nuclear parameters between ERG+ and ERG– prostatic carcinomas

Abstract

Prostatic carcinoma (PC) is the most frequent urologic cancer and one of the most frequent cancers in males; it is a heterogeneous disease, in terms of molecular features, morphology and prognosis. About half of cases depends on TMPRSS2-ETS translocation which leads to a production of ERG transcription factor. ERG+ and ERG-cancers seem to differ in a number of features, which could lead to an altered nuclear structure; the aim of the study was to test this hypothesis. The material consisted of total 39 PC cases, representing ERG+ and ERG-, as well as Gleason pattern 3 and 4. Filtering by color deconvolution and automatic segmentation were used, and the properly detected nuclei were manually selected. From each case fifty nuclei were obtained; then geometric features and texture parameters were assessed. The analysis of the collected data showed differences both between ERG+/ERG-and Gleason pattern 3 and 4 cases in most of the features analyzed. Our results suggest that indeed the ERG status, thus likely TMPRSS2-ETS translocation, has an impact on morphology of nuclei in PC, and their differences are evident enough to be detectable by image analysis.

Investigation of Neural Microenvironment in Prostate Cancer in Context of Neural Density, Perineural Invasion, and Neuroendocrine Profile of Tumors

“…A recent analysis by Alshalalfa et al showed the highest risk for uncurable disease in patients with low NPY and ERG-positive subgroup (74). The TMPRSS2-ERG fusion is an early and one of the most common genetic abnormalities responsible for tumor invasion and progression affecting growth pathways and regulating differentiation, cell cycle, proliferation, angiogenesis and morphology in PCa (78)(79)(80). The overexpression of ERG is a biomarker of fusion, and may be related to unfavorable prognostic factors and decreased survival (80)(81)(82)(83).…”