Developing an image analysis capability to support immunohistochemical and FISH analyses in the Biochemistry and Breakthrough Pathology Core Facility.

Much of the biomarker work of the Dowsett RMH lab and the Breakthrough Histopathology Facility is based on immunohistochemistry. This has become more extensive with construction of Tissue Microarrays (TMAs) for example with the TransATAC project that is funded by Breakthrough (and Astrazeneca) under a separate project grant.

At present, quantification of staining is performed by visual microscopy. There is substantial evidence that many of the markers evaluated are best assessed as continuous variables and numerous scoring systems have been derived for quantification, but at best, these are semiquantitative and subjective leading to substantial within- and particularly between-operator variability.

Our aim for the next year, is to set up a comprehensive image analysis facility, to remove the subjectivity of traditional scoring systems and provide a more continuous and reproducible scoring system.