Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos
Abstract Background Bladder cancer is the 10th most common malignancy and carries the highest treatment cost among all cancers. The elevated cost stems from its high recurrence rate, which necessitates frequent surveillance. White light cystoscopy (WLC), the standard of care surveillance tool to exa...
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| Format: | Article |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Communications Medicine |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-024-00705-6 |
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| author | Shuang Chang Greyson A. Wintergerst Camella Carlson Haoli Yin Kristen R. Scarpato Amy N. Luckenbaugh Sam S. Chang Soheil Kolouri Audrey K. Bowden |
| author_facet | Shuang Chang Greyson A. Wintergerst Camella Carlson Haoli Yin Kristen R. Scarpato Amy N. Luckenbaugh Sam S. Chang Soheil Kolouri Audrey K. Bowden |
| author_sort | Shuang Chang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Bladder cancer is the 10th most common malignancy and carries the highest treatment cost among all cancers. The elevated cost stems from its high recurrence rate, which necessitates frequent surveillance. White light cystoscopy (WLC), the standard of care surveillance tool to examine the bladder for lesions, has limited sensitivity for early-stage bladder cancer. Blue light cystoscopy (BLC) utilizes a fluorescent dye to induce contrast in cancerous regions, improving the sensitivity of detection by 43%. Nevertheless, the added equipment cost and lengthy dwell time of the dye limits the availability of BLC. Methods Here, we report the first demonstration of digital staining as a promising strategy to convert WLC images collected with standard-of-care clinical equipment into accurate BLC-like images, providing enhanced sensitivity for WLC without the associated labor or equipment cost. Results By introducing key pre-processing steps to circumvent color and brightness variations in clinical datasets needed for successful model performance, the results achieve a staining accuracy of 80.58% and show excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement of the digitally stained WLC (dsWLC) images with ground truth BLC images, including color consistency. Conclusions In short, dsWLC can affordably provide the fluorescent contrast needed to improve the detection sensitivity of bladder cancer, thereby increasing the accessibility of BLC contrast for bladder cancer surveillance. The broader implications of this work suggest digital staining is a cost-effective alternative to contrast-based endoscopy for other clinical scenarios outside of urology that can democratize access to better healthcare. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6dd5b13399b44a86a95fc42f2f8964f2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2730-664X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Medicine |
| spelling | doaj-art-6dd5b13399b44a86a95fc42f2f8964f22024-12-22T12:44:10ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Medicine2730-664X2024-12-014111010.1038/s43856-024-00705-6Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videosShuang Chang0Greyson A. Wintergerst1Camella Carlson2Haoli Yin3Kristen R. Scarpato4Amy N. Luckenbaugh5Sam S. Chang6Soheil Kolouri7Audrey K. Bowden8Vanderbilt University, Department of Biomedical EngineeringVanderbilt University, Department of Computer ScienceVanderbilt University, Department of Biomedical EngineeringVanderbilt University, Department of Computer ScienceVanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of UrologyVanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of UrologyVanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of UrologyVanderbilt University, Department of Computer ScienceVanderbilt University, Department of Biomedical EngineeringAbstract Background Bladder cancer is the 10th most common malignancy and carries the highest treatment cost among all cancers. The elevated cost stems from its high recurrence rate, which necessitates frequent surveillance. White light cystoscopy (WLC), the standard of care surveillance tool to examine the bladder for lesions, has limited sensitivity for early-stage bladder cancer. Blue light cystoscopy (BLC) utilizes a fluorescent dye to induce contrast in cancerous regions, improving the sensitivity of detection by 43%. Nevertheless, the added equipment cost and lengthy dwell time of the dye limits the availability of BLC. Methods Here, we report the first demonstration of digital staining as a promising strategy to convert WLC images collected with standard-of-care clinical equipment into accurate BLC-like images, providing enhanced sensitivity for WLC without the associated labor or equipment cost. Results By introducing key pre-processing steps to circumvent color and brightness variations in clinical datasets needed for successful model performance, the results achieve a staining accuracy of 80.58% and show excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement of the digitally stained WLC (dsWLC) images with ground truth BLC images, including color consistency. Conclusions In short, dsWLC can affordably provide the fluorescent contrast needed to improve the detection sensitivity of bladder cancer, thereby increasing the accessibility of BLC contrast for bladder cancer surveillance. The broader implications of this work suggest digital staining is a cost-effective alternative to contrast-based endoscopy for other clinical scenarios outside of urology that can democratize access to better healthcare.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-024-00705-6 |
| spellingShingle | Shuang Chang Greyson A. Wintergerst Camella Carlson Haoli Yin Kristen R. Scarpato Amy N. Luckenbaugh Sam S. Chang Soheil Kolouri Audrey K. Bowden Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos Communications Medicine |
| title | Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos |
| title_full | Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos |
| title_fullStr | Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos |
| title_full_unstemmed | Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos |
| title_short | Low-cost and label-free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos |
| title_sort | low cost and label free blue light cystoscopy through digital staining of white light cystoscopy videos |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-024-00705-6 |
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