2014-04-23
International study on inter-reader variability for circulating tumor cells in breast cancer
Publication
Publication
Breast Cancer Research (Print) , Volume 16 - Issue 2
Introduction: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been studied in breast cancer with the CellSearch® system. Given the low CTC counts in non-metastatic breast cancer, it is important to evaluate the inter-reader agreement.Methods: CellSearch® images (N = 272) of either CTCs or white blood cells or artifacts from 109 non-metastatic (M0) and 22 metastatic (M1) breast cancer patients from reported studies were sent to 22 readers from 15 academic laboratories and 8 readers from two Veridex laboratories. Each image was scored as No CTC vs CTC HER2- vs CTC HER2+. The 8 Veridex readers were summarized to a Veridex Consensus (VC) to compare each academic reader using % agreement and kappa (κ) statistics. Agreement was compared according to disease stage and CTC counts using the Wilcoxon signed rank test.Results: For CTC definition (No CTC vs CTC), the median agreement between academic readers and VC was 92% (range 69 to 97%) with a median κ of 0.83 (range 0.37 to 0.93). Lower agreement was observed in images from M0 (median 91%, range 70 to 96%) compared to M1 (median 98%, range 64 to 100%) patients (P < 0.001) and from M0 and <3CTCs (median 87%, range 66 to 95%) compared to M0 and ≥3CTCs samples (median 95%, range 77 to 99%), (P < 0.001). For CTC HER2 expression (HER2- vs HER2+), the median agreement was 87% (range 51 to 95%) with a median κ of 0.74 (range 0.25 to 0.90).Conclusions: The inter-reader agreement for CTC definition was high. Reduced agreement was observed in M0 patients with low CTC counts. Continuous training and independent image review are required.
| Additional Metadata | |
|---|---|
| doi.org/10.1186/bcr3647, hdl.handle.net/1765/55184 | |
| Breast Cancer Research (Print) | |
| Organisation | Department of Medical Oncology |
|
Ignatiadis, M., Riethdorf, S., Bidard, F.-C., Vaucher, I., Khazour, M., Rothé, F., … Pantel, K. (2014). International study on inter-reader variability for circulating tumor cells in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research (Print), 16(2). doi:10.1186/bcr3647 |
|
