Combined expert-in-the-loop—random forest multiclass segmentation U-net based artificial intelligence model: evaluation of non-small cell lung cancer in fibrotic and non-fibrotic microenvironments

Abstract Background The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a key role in lung cancer initiation, proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods could potentially accelerate TME analysis. The aims of this study were to (1) assess the feasibility of using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained whole slide images (WSI) to develop an AI model for evaluating the TME and (2) to characterize the TME of adenocarcinoma (ADCA) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) in fibrotic and non-fibrotic lung. Methods The cohort was derived from chest CT scans of patients presenting with lung neoplasms, with and without background fibrosis. WSI images were generated from slides of all 76 available pathology cases with ADCA ( n = 53) or SCCA ( n = 23) in fibrotic ( n = 47) or non-fibrotic ( n = 29) lung. Detailed ground-truth annotations, including of stroma (i.e., fibrosis, vessels, inflammation), necrosis and background, were performed on WSI and optimized via an expert-in-the-loop (EITL) iterative procedure using a lightweight random forest (RF) classifier. A convolution neural network (CNN)-based model was used to achieve tissue-level multiclass segmentation. The model was trained on 25 annotated WSI from 13 cases of ADCA and SCCA within and without fibrosis and then applied to the 76-case cohort. The TME analysis included tumor stroma ratio (TSR), tumor fibrosis ratio (TFR), tumor inflammation ratio (TIR), tumor vessel ratio (TVR), tumor necrosis ratio (TNR), and tumor background ratio (TBR). Results The model’s overall classification for precision, sensitivity, and F1-score were 94%, 90%, and 91%, respectively. Statistically significant differences were noted in TSR ( p = 0.041) and TFR ( p = 0.001) between fibrotic and non-fibrotic ADCA. Within fibrotic lung, statistically significant differences were present in TFR ( p = 0.039), TIR ( p = 0.003), TVR ( p = 0.041), TNR ( p = 0.0003), and TBR ( p = 0.020) between ADCA and SCCA. Conclusion The combined EITL—RF CNN model using only H&E WSI can facilitate multiclass evaluation and quantification of the TME. There are significant differences in the TME of ADCA and SCCA present within or without background fibrosis. Future studies are needed to determine the significance of TME on prognosis and treatment.