Grading of lung adenocarcinomas with simultaneous segmentation by artificial intelligence (GLASS-AI)
John H. Lockhart, Hayley D. Ackerman, Kyubum Lee, Mahmoud A. Abdalah, Andrew John Davis, Nicole Hackel, Theresa A. Boyle, James J. Saller, Aysenur Keske, Kay Hänggi, Brian Ruffell, Olya Stringfield, W. Douglas Cress, Aik Choon Tan, Elsa R. Flores
Abstract
Preclinical genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) of lung adenocarcinoma are invaluable for investigating molecular drivers of tumor formation, progression, and therapeutic resistance. However, histological analysis of these GEMMs requires significant time and training to ensure accuracy and consistency. To achieve a more objective and standardized analysis, we used machine learning to create GLASS-AI, a histological image analysis tool that the broader cancer research community can utilize to grade, segment, and analyze tumors in preclinical models of lung adenocarcinoma. GLASS-AI demonstrates strong agreement with expert human raters while uncovering a significant degree of unreported intratumor heterogeneity. Integrating immunohistochemical staining with high-resolution grade analysis by GLASS-AI identified dysregulation of Mapk/Erk signaling in high-grade lung adenocarcinomas and locally advanced tumor regions. Our work demonstrates the benefit of employing GLASS-AI in preclinical lung adenocarcinoma models and the power of integrating machine learning and molecular biology techniques for studying the molecular pathways that underlie cancer progression.