Comparison of visual and automated assessment of tumour inflammatory infiltrates in patients with colorectal cancer

The results of the present study demonstrate that automated assessment effectively recapitulates the clinical value of visual assessment of the local inflammatory cell infiltrate at the invasive margin of colorectal tumours. In addition, it is possible to obtain an objective assessment of tumour inflammatory infiltrates using routinely stained H&E sections. An automated, computer-based scoring method is therefore a workable and cost-effective approach to clinical assessment of local immune cell infiltrates in colorectal cancer.