Assessment of intratumoral collagen in pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (pituitary adenomas/PitNets) via digital pathology and its correlation with intraoperative consistency
Authors' conclusion
Digital collagen quantification provides an objective histological correlate of intraoperative tumor consistency, validating the distinction between soft and fibrous tumors, and establishing a reference standard for future studies aimed at developing preoperative predictive models.
Study context
- Population
- Biopsy samples from patients undergoing surgery for pituitary adenomas/PitNets; consistency classified intraoperatively by the same neurosurgeontumors analyzed
- Participants
- 69 participants
- Exposure
- Collagen content across intraoperative consistency categories
- Softn = 30reference
- Firmn = 22
- Fibrousn = 17
- Outcome
- Collagen content (surrogate of fibrosis) as % of total tumor area, Masson's trichrome with QuPath pixel classifier
Methodological detailsdigital image analysis, blinded to intraoperative assessments
- Digital image analysis
- Blinded to intraoperative assessments
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Median collagen content
Fibrous vs Soft: P < 0.05 · Fibrous vs Firm: P < 0.05
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Collagen content vs tumor subtype and patient age
- Not associated with tumor subtype or patient age
Heterogeneity of collagen deposition between paired tissue blocks
- CV
- 59.83%
Original publication
Assessment of intratumoral collagen in pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (pituitary adenomas/PitNets) via digital pathology and its correlation with intraoperative consistency. Pituitary. Published 23 May 2026. doi:10.
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