BACKGROUND AND PURPOSES The aim of this study was to develop morphological analytic methods to analyze the tumor-fat interface and in different peritumoral shells away from the tumor, and to compare the results among three molecular subtypes of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 102 women (mean age 48.5 y/o) with solitary well-defined breast cancers were analyzed, including 46 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) (+), 46 HER2(-) hormonal receptor (HR) (+), and 10 triple negative (TN) breast cancers. The tumor lesion, the breast, the fibroglandular and fatty tissue were segmented using well-established methods. The whole breast fat percentage and the peri-tumor interface fat percentage were measured. Three shells (SH1, SH2, SH3) surrounding the convex hall of the three dimensional (3D) tumor were defined and in each shell the volumetric percentage of fat was calculated. The peri-tumor interface fat percentage and the volumetric percentage of fat in the three peri-tumoral shells were compared among different subtypes. RESULTS In the TN group, the fat percentage on the tumor boundary was 43 ± 20% and 78 ± 12% for two dimensional (2D) and 3D measurement, respectively, which were the highest among the three subtypes but not significantly different. The fat percentage in SH2 and SH3 in the TN group was 82 ± 7% and 85 ± 7%, which was significantly higher compared to the two other two subtypes. The results remained after controlling for the whole breast fat percentage. CONCLUSIONS This study provided a feasible method for quantitative analysis of peri-tumoral tissue characteristics. Because of small patient number, the finding that TN tumors had the highest peri-tumor fat content among the three subtypes needs to be further verified with a large cohort study.

中文翻译：

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乳腺癌不同分子亚型的肿瘤周围脂肪的定量分析。


背景和目的本研究的目的是开发形态学分析方法来分析肿瘤-脂肪界面和远离肿瘤的不同瘤周壳，并比较乳腺癌三种分子亚型的结果。材料和方法 总共分析了 102 名患有孤立性明确乳腺癌的女性（平均年龄 48.5 岁），其中包括 46 名人类表皮生长因子受体 2 (HER2) (+)、46 名 HER2(-) 激素受体 (HR) ) (+) 和 10 例三阴性 (TN) 乳腺癌。使用成熟的方法对肿瘤病变、乳房、纤维腺体和脂肪组织进行分割。测量全乳脂肪百分比和肿瘤周围界面脂肪百分比。定义了围绕三维（3D）肿瘤凸厅的三个壳（SH1、SH2、SH3），并计算每个壳中脂肪的体积百分比。比较不同亚型的肿瘤周围界面脂肪百分比和三种肿瘤周围壳中脂肪的体积百分比。结果 TN组二维（2D）和3D测量的肿瘤边界脂肪百分比分别为43±20%和78±12%，是三个亚型中最高的，但没有显着差异。 TN组SH2和SH3的脂肪百分比分别为82±7%和85±7%，明显高于另外两种亚型。在控制整个乳房脂肪百分比后，结果仍然存在。结论本研究为瘤周组织特征的定量分析提供了可行的方法。 由于患者数量较少，TN肿瘤在三种亚型中瘤周脂肪含量最高的发现需要通过大型队列研究进一步验证。