Identification of Morphological Features of Fibrillar Collagen Indicative of Tumor Progression in Bladder Cancer.

Our preliminary findings are in line with the hypothesis that collagen remodeling is strongly associated with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, and suggest that quantitative features measuring the straightness of individual fibers may be used to improve tumor staging. This type of quantitative approach is particularly helpful in distinguishing between stage pT1 and stage pT2 of bladder cancer, a task which can be challenging at times even for experienced pathologists.