Evaluation of DNA and nuclear protein features for their use in describing normal and malignant endometrium

Different feature sets (geometric, densitometric, and textural) derived from DNA and nuclear protein staining were evaluated for their use in describing atrophic, secretory, and proliferative endometrium, and well-differentiated stage I and moderately differentiated stage I adenocarcinomas of the endometrium. It was found that the pattern of significant differences among these groups varied between feature sets, while remaining consistent within a set of features. The DNA density and run-length features were not very effective in describing group mean differences, whereas the co-occurrence features revealed significant differences among most groups. The protein run-length features were the only ones that consistently showed a difference between proliferative endometrium and well-differentiated adenocarcinomas. Analyses repeated on only cells in the G0/G1 DNA region improved the differentiation between moderately differentiated adenocarcinomas and the other groups. It was concluded that the use of DNA and nuclear protein texture features are effective in describing group differences that cannot be described by DNA content only.