Uncovering additional predictors of urothelial carcinoma from voided urothelial cell clusters through a deep learning-based image preprocessing technique.

BACKGROUND:Urine cytology is commonly used as a screening test for high-grade urothelial carcinoma for patients with risk factors or hematuria and is an essential step in longitudinal monitoring of patients with previous bladder cancer history. However, the semisubjective nature of current reporting systems for urine cytology (e.g., The Paris System) can hamper reproducibility. For instance, the incorporation of urothelial cell clusters into the classification schema is still an item of debate and perplexity among expert cytopathologists because several previous works have disputed their diagnostic relevance. METHODS:In this work, an automated preprocessing tool for urothelial cell cluster assessment was developed that divides urothelial cell clusters into meaningful components for downstream assessment (ie, population-based studies, workflow automation). RESULTS:In this work, an automated preprocessing tool for urothelial cell cluster assessment was developed that divides urothelial cell clusters into meaningful components for downstream assessment (ie, population-based studies, workflow automation). Results indicate that cell cluster atypia (i.e., defined by whether the cell cluster harbored multiple atypical cells, thresholded by a minimum number of cells), cell border overlap and smoothness, and total number of clusters are important markers of specimen atypia when considering assessment of urothelial cell clusters. CONCLUSIONS:Markers established through techniques to separate cell clusters may have wider applicability for the design and implementation of machine learning approaches for urine cytology assessment.