Time Estimation of Topotecan Penetration in Retinoblastoma Cells Through Image Sequence Analysis

Abstract

Retinoblastoma is the most common intraocular tumor in childhood. Topotecan has been widely used as an antineoplastic agent for retinoblastoma treatment. Topotecan penetration into living tumorspheres is quantified using confocal microscopy. This fluorescent drug dyes the living tissue and it can be recorded in a sequence of images over a period of time. The effective penetration of the drug depends on culture characteristics and requires a very specific timing. This penetration time is calculated empirically by an expert. The purpose of this work is to offer a statistical model to automatically estimate the penetration time of topotecan in the cell, based on the information obtained from a sequence of tumorsphere images.