CHALLENGE BACKGROUND

THINGS TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION

When pathologists evaluate the slides they take into consideration two main aspects: general architecture and cytological details.

General architecture is the geometrical relationship between the components that constitute the tissues. Basically it is the way that different elements, like epithelial cells and stroma (including stromal cells and the substance between cells called matrix), organize in space forming the tissue. Fortunately, this relation is not chaotic, and the elements form regular shapes that are related to a specific function. The first step is always to know normal architecture.

Cytological details refer to characteristics of cells (epithelial or stromal) regardless of their organization to one another. Usually, these details are centered in the nucleus, but that is not necessarily exclusive. There are many parameters that should be take into consideration, including size, shape, variability, homogeneity, just to name a few. The possibilities are numerous.

There are however other aspects that can and should be measured when making a particular diagnosis. For instance, pathologists also use stroma characteristics to identify many types of lesions. This includes cellularity and changes in the coloration of the matrix that reflects their chemical constitution.

Concluding, there are several factors that can be used in order to achieve a histological diagnosis and probably many more that would provide a way to computational/automatic classification of the lesions.