LVI-PathNet: Segmentation-classification pipeline for detection of lymphovascular invasion in whole slide images of lung adenocarcinoma

Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in lung cancer is a significant prognostic factor that influences treatment and outcomes, yet its reliable detection is challenging due to interobserver variability. This study aims to develop a deep learning model for LVI detection using whole slide images (WSIs) and evaluate its effectiveness within a pathologist's information system. Experienced pathologists annotated blood vessels and invading tumor cells in 162 WSIs of non-mucinous lung adenocarcinoma sourced from two external and one internal datasets. Two models were trained to segment vessels and identify images with LVI features. DeepLabV3+ model achieved an Intersection-over-Union of 0.8840 and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) of 0.9869 in vessel segmentation. For LVI classification, the ensemble model achieved a F1-score of 0.9683 and an AUC-ROC of 0.9987. The model demonstrated robustness and was unaffected by variations in staining and image quality. The pilot study showed that pathologists' evaluation time for LVI detecting decreased by an average of 16.95%, and by 21.5% in “hard cases”. The model facilitated consistent diagnostic assessments, suggesting potential for broader applications in detecting pathological changes in blood vessels and other lung pathologies.