Peritumoral immune infiltrates in primary tumours are not associated with the presence of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: The axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) in breast cancer patients are the body regions to where tumoral cells most often first disseminate. The tumour immune response is important for breast cancer patient outcome, and some studies have evaluated its involvement in ALN metastasis development. Most studies have focused on the intratumoral immune response, but very few have evaluated the peritumoral immune response.

The Immune Response in Nonmetastatic Axillary Lymph Nodes Is Associated with the Presence of Axillary Metastasis and Breast Cancer Patient Outcome.

Tumor cells can modify the immune response in primary tumors and in the axillary lymph nodes with metastasis (ALN) in breast cancer (BC), influencing patient outcome. We investigated whether patterns of immune cells in the primary tumor and in the axillary lymph nodes without metastasis (ALN) differed between patients diagnosed without ALN (diagnosed-ALN) and with ALN (diagnosed-ALN) and the implications for clinical outcome. Eleven immune markers were studied using immunohistochemistry, tissue microarray, and digital image analysis in 141 BC patient samples (75 diagnosed-ALN and 66 diagnosed-ALN).

Development of automated quantification methodologies of immunohistochemical markers to determine patterns of immune response in breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study.

Introduction: Lymph nodes are one of the main sites where an effective immune response develops. Normally, axillary nodes are the first place where breast cancer produces metastases. Several studies have demonstrated the importance of immune cells, especially dendritic cells, in the evolution of breast cancer.

An automated system for whole microscopic image acquisition and analysis.

The field of anatomic pathology has experienced major changes over the last decade. Virtual microscopy (VM) systems have allowed experts in pathology and other biomedical areas to work in a safer and more collaborative way. VMs are automated systems capable of digitizing microscopic samples that were traditionally examined one by one.

Emerging trends: grid technology in pathology.

Grid technology has enabled clustering and access to, and interaction among, a wide variety of geographically distributed resources such as supercomputers, storage systems, data sources, instruments as well as special devices and services, realizing network-centric operations. Their main applications include large scale computational and data intensive problems in science and engineering. Grids are likely to have a deep impact on health related applications.