{
  "abstract": "MYCN amplification and segmental chromosomal abnormalities have long been prognostic markers in paediatric neuroblastoma, and are often accompanied by morphological changes that portend high-risk disease. Yet quantitative morphological assessment is limited to countable features, such as the mitosis-karyorrhexis index. Other high-risk features, such as nuclear size, pleomorphism and anaplasia, lack formal criteria. This leaves a gap: current simple pathology metrics cannot capture, or localise, the full morphological landscape of high-risk biology, such as disease driven by MYCN. Seeking high-risk cases that standard criteria may miss, we developed Pheno-MYCN, a weakly supervised framework linking slide-level MYCN prediction on 189 H&E whole-slide images to interpretable phenotypic sub-populations that expert review mapped to neuroblastoma morphologies. The aim is not a stronger classifier, but to reveal the morphological basis of MYCN prediction. Cell-level profiling found MYCN-associated differences across sub-populations. Amplified tumour was densely cellular but disorganised, with less connected networks, lower cellular diversity and greater abundance of haemorrhagic and acellular necrotic regions. MYCN-amplified-like tissue was identifiable per slide from these features alone (AUC 0.93-1.00, leave-one-slide-out) and traced as a continuous gradient within tumours. Thus MYCN amplification leaves a concrete, interpretable footprint, readable and localisable on routine H&E.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "The Institute of Cancer Research"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "B. Chai"
    },
    {
      "name": "O. Fourkioti"
    },
    {
      "name": "R. Naidoo"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. De Vries"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Waqar Ahmed"
    },
    {
      "name": "T. Jacques"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. George"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Chesler"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. C. Hutchinson"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "C. Bakal"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c1bd9y5tqz58b.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.08.20.745848",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.20.745848v2.full",
  "id": "c1bd9y5tqz58b",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.20.745848v2",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "cancer biology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2728|Neuroblastoma Research and Treatments"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7203923740",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.20.745848v2.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-08-20",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c1bd9y5tqz58b.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:26:47Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.08.20.745848",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.20.745848v2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "biorxiv:cancer biology",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Pheno-MYCN maps the morphological footprint of MYCN amplification in paediatric neuroblastoma",
  "title_text": "Pheno-MYCN maps the morphological footprint of MYCN amplification in paediatric neuroblastoma",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:26:47Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c1bd9y5tqz58b",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}