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Digital pathology for reporting histopathology samples, including cancer screening samples - definitive evidence from
Ayesha S Azam1,2, Yee-Wah Tsang1, Jenny Thirlwall2
1University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry, UK.
Histopathology
|January 17, 2024
Summary
Digital pathology (DP) and light microscopy (LM) show equivalent performance in histopathology reporting for routine and cancer screening samples. Both methods achieve high clinical management concordance (CMC) rates, exceeding the benchmark for accurate diagnoses.
Area of Science:
- Histopathology
- Digital Pathology
- Oncology
Background:
- Traditional light microscopy (LM) is the standard for histopathology slide analysis.
- Digital pathology (DP) offers potential advantages in workflow and analysis.
- Comparative studies are needed to validate DP's equivalence to LM.
Purpose of the Study:
- To perform a definitive multicentre comparison of digital pathology (DP) and light microscopy (LM).
- To evaluate reporting accuracy for histopathology slides, including breast and bowel cancer screening samples.
- To assess clinical management concordance (CMC) between DP and LM.
Main Methods:
- 2024 cases across breast, gastrointestinal (GI), skin, and renal specialties were analyzed.
- 16 pathologists used both LM and DP, with random assignment and a 6-week interval.
- Clinical management concordance (CMC) was calculated and compared to a 98.3% reference standard.
Main Results:
- Overall CMC rates for LM vs. DP were 99.95% and 98.96% for cancer screening samples.
- Specialty-specific CMC rates for DP generally exceeded 99%, with breast cancer screening at 96.27%.
- Discrepancies occurred in areas of known interobserver variability, without modality-specific trends.
Conclusions:
- Both LM and DP achieve high CMC rates, surpassing the 98.3% benchmark.
- Pathologists provide equivalent diagnostic results regardless of using LM or DP.
- DP is a reliable method for routine and cancer screening histopathology reporting.
