Intellisite digital pathology slide scanner

The cases selected for this study were based on the E-learning module of the UNITED study.⁸ (link) These cases were chosen for training purposes by limiting the number of stroma-low cases (e.g., 10% or 20% stroma cases), in order to increase the number of cases that are difficult to score for pathologists. All patients underwent surgical treatment at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), had stage II or stage III colon cancer, and no patients received neo-adjuvant treatment. The slides were anonymized and scanned with the Panoramic 250 scanner (3DHistech, Hungary) (tissue level pixel size ∼0.33 μm/pixel), or with the IntelliSite Digital pathology slide scanner (Philips, the Netherlands) (tissue level pixel size ∼0.25–0.26 μm/pixel).

The e-Learning module was based on H&E-stained sections of stage II and III colon cancer resection specimens. The cases were randomly selected from the archives of the Pathology Department of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC). The number of cases with very low stroma (ie, 10% or 20% stroma area) were limited from the analysis to increase the number of cases that are generally more difficult to score for pathologists and are therefore more suitable for training purposes. In the e-Learning, 55% of the cases were stroma-low (≤50% stroma) and 45% were stroma-high (>50% stroma). None of the patients had received neoadjuvant treatment at the time of sample collection. The sample size was based on a workable amount of cases to maintain quality without the case load being too high.
Slides were scanned using a 20× objective with the Panoramic 250 scanner (3D Histech) or with the IntelliSite Digital pathology slide scanner (Philips).