Comparison of Manual Versus QuPath Software-based Immunohistochemical Scoring Using Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma as a...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Digital Pathology
• Biomarker Analysis

Background:

• Manual immunohistochemical analysis is the gold standard but is time-consuming and subjective.
• Image analysis software offers a potential solution for objective biomarker assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the comparability of digital assessment using QuPath software versus manual evaluation.
• To examine inter-evaluator variability between manual and software-based analyses for oral squamous cell carcinoma biomarkers.

Main Methods:

• Six tissue microarrays from 309 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients were analyzed.
• Immunohistochemical staining for Ki67, EGF-R, and MHC-I was performed.
• Analyses were conducted by two manual evaluators and the QuPath software.

Main Results:

• High to excellent Spearman correlation coefficients were observed for all three biomarkers (p<0.001).
• Bland-Altman plots indicated high agreement between manual and software-based analyses.
• High comparability was demonstrated between manual and software-based evaluation methods.

Conclusions:

• Digital assessment with QuPath is comparable to manual evaluation for oral cancer biomarkers.
• Software-based analysis offers objective, reproducible, and accurate results for large-scale biomarker studies.
• Accurate annotation and user expertise are crucial prerequisites for effective software-based analysis.