Cancer Metastasis

Staining

Analysis of cancer metastasis to bone is often done using longitudinal sections of bone. These sections can include nearly the entire tibia or femur.

Define the Tissue Volume

Irregular ROI Tool

BIOQUANT has several unique tools to help you define the Tissue Volume quickly and consistently. The Irregular ROI tool helps you draw a border around exact contour of the bone to be analyzed.

Bone Referent Data

Referent Data tool

Once the Tissue Volume is defined, the Referent Data tool identifies and thresholds the bone based on stain color, automatically fills in small holes and cracks while preserving void spaces, and instantly traces the bone. If necessary, the Draw and Erase tools can make manual corrections to the bone shape.

With your approval, the Referent Data tool collects these data:

TV, BV, BS
BV/TV, BS/BV
Tb.N, Tb.Dm, Tb.Sp

FYI - The Referent Data Tool can be used on a large scan of the tissue, zoomed out to fit in the Image window as show above. It can also be used field-to-field at higher magnification. You do not need a scan or tracking device to use BIOQUANT, although they do save you time.

Tumor Referent Data

Referent Data Tool

BIOQUANT automatically identifies marrow space based on the earlier bone volume measurement. The eraser tool can be used to remove the threshold that is over normal marrow cells, leaving only the tumor.

BIOQUANT then records:

Tu.V, Tu.S
Tu.V/TV, Tu.V/BV, Tu.S/BS

Osteoclast Data

Auto SurfacE Tool

Without TRAP staining, osteoclasts cannot be automatically identified. Instead, osteoclasts are identified manually with the threshold paintbrush tool. The Auto Surface tool measures the length associated with each osteoclast.

BIOQUANT then records: