INTEGRATED OPTICAL-DENSITY (IOD), SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE-ANALYSIS, AND SURVIVAL IN OPERATED LUNG-CARCINOMA PATIENTS

Histological sections of formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue comp rising 195 specimens of human lung carcinomas were Feulgen stained. Th e nuclei of the histomorphological images were segmented using an auto mated image analyzing system, and the attributed minimum spanning tree s (MST) were calculated. Features related to the DNA-content of the nu clei (integrated optical density (IOD), IOD-entropy, S-phase related f raction, percentage > 5C, etc.), and structural parameters (minimum di stance between tumor cell nuclei, minimum distance between tumor cells and neighboring lymphocytes, MST-entropy, MST-current of entropy (ent ropiefluss), distance between neighboring proliferating tumor cells, e tc.) were measured. The following results were obtained: the measured IOD and MST features showed significant differences between the primar y carcinomas and metastatic carcinomas in the intrapulmonary lymph nod es. The survival of patients was remarkably improved if the carcinomas displayed a low S-phase related fraction, a low percentage of tumor c ells > SC, a low number of stem lines, and a low A IST-current of entr opy.