Collagen, the main component of the tumor microenvironment, plays a key role in the development of breast cancer (BCa); however, the specific changes in its spatial organization during tumor progression have not been definitively elucidated. The existing and available methods for assessing the morphometric parameters of the stroma's fibrous component are insufficient for a detailed description of the state of collagen fibers and for assessing its changes to evaluate the aggressiveness of the BCa course. The aim of the work was to develop an algorithm for microphoto analysis to assess the spatial organization of collagen in BCa tissue of patients with different clinical statuses. The study was conducted on 60 tissue samples of stage I-II BCa. The processed images were analyzed using the software packages CurveAlign v4.0 and imagej. We established that the increase in BCa stage and the decrease in tumor differentiation grade are associated with decreased length, width, and straightness of collagen fibers, as well as their increased density. The formation of an aggressive basal molecular BCa subtype was accompanied by an increase in tumor-stroma ratio. The obtained results indicate the possibility of practical application of the developed algorithm for evaluating the spatial organization of collagen in BCa tissue to predict the aggressiveness of the disease course.

中文翻译：

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开发不同临床状态患者乳腺癌组织中胶原蛋白空间组织的生物医学图像分析算法

胶原蛋白是肿瘤微环境的主要成分，在乳腺癌（BCa）的发生发展中发挥着关键作用；然而，肿瘤进展过程中其空间组织的具体变化尚未明确阐明。现有的和可用的用于评估基质纤维成分的形态参数的方法不足以详细描述胶原纤维的状态并评估其变化以评估 BCa 过程的侵袭性。这项工作的目的是开发一种显微照片分析算法，以评估不同临床状态患者 BCa 组织中胶原蛋白的空间组织。该研究针对 60 个 I-II 期 BCa 组织样本进行。使用软件包 CurveAlign v4.0 和imagej分析处理后的图像。我们确定BCa阶段的增加和肿瘤分化等级的降低与胶原纤维的长度、宽度和直度的减少以及其密度的增加有关。侵袭性基础分子 BCa 亚型的形成伴随着肿瘤基质比率的增加。所获得的结果表明，所开发的算法可以实际应用来评估 BCa 组织中胶原蛋白的空间组织，以预测病程的侵袭性。