Work

Virtual Staining-Enabled Colorectal Cancer Metastasis Detection in Liquid Cytology Based on Digital Holography

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality, and detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is crucial for early diagnosis and metastasis monitoring. Conventional staining-based cytology is costly, time-consuming, and often compromises sample integrity. In this study, we employed a combined digital holography (DH) and fluorescence imaging approach to develop a virtual staining framework for transforming quantitative phase imaging (QPI) data into interpretable pseudo-stained images. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of such a framework to colorectal cancer CTC detection. In our experiments, green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled HCT116 cells-generated through lentiviral transfection-were mixed with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to create training datasets. The trained network achieved 99% classification accuracy and demonstrated strong generalization to unseen donors. This DH-fluorescence-based virtual staining method preserves cell integrity while enabling rapid, label-free, and low-cost liquid cytology diagnostics, highlighting its potential for non-invasive cancer detection and monitoring.

Source: Sensors

DOI: 10.3390/s25237272

Authors: Yusen Gao, Xi Xiao, Ran Peng, Hao Wang, Feng Pan

Institutions: Beihang University, Peking University Third Hospital

Language: English

Topic: Digital Holography and Microscopy

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137