3D Pathology Volumetric Technique: A Method for Calculating Breast Tumour Volume from Whole-Mount Serial Section...

Area of Science:

• Pathology
• Oncology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Tumour size is a key breast cancer survival predictor.
• Tumour volume may offer a more accurate measure of tumour burden than linear extent.
• Conventional pathology methods can face challenges with complex tumour morphologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate a novel "3D pathology volumetric technique" for lumpectomy specimens.
• To compare the accuracy of 3D volumetric measurements against traditional 2D measurements.
• To assess the impact of tumour morphology on accurate tumour burden assessment.

Main Methods:

• Digitized whole-mount serial sections of lumpectomy specimens were used.
• Custom software computed volume renderings and total tumour volume.
• The 3D volumetric technique was compared with 2D measurements (maximum linear extent).

Main Results:

• The 3D volumetric technique visualized spatial relationships of tumour features.
• Conventional pathology underestimated invasive tumour burden (up to 30% for infiltrative patterns).
• 2D measurements overestimated tumour volume compared to 3D calculations (up to 7x).

Conclusions:

• The 3D pathology volumetric technique offers superior accuracy for breast cancer tumour burden assessment.
• This method is particularly valuable for complex tumour patterns challenging conventional pathology.
• Accurate tumour volume measurement using 3D pathology can improve prognostic accuracy in breast cancer.