A.I. creates 'maps' of immune system fighting cancer - Futurity

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Using artificial intelligence and deep learning on very high-resolution images of tumor tissue, researchers produced maps of how the immune system fights cancer. By combining data on pathology images of 13 types of cancer and correlating that with clinical and genomic data, the team of researchers were able to identify tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), called TIL maps, which will enable cancer specialists to generate tumor-immune information from routinely gathered pathology slides. Published in Cell Reports, the paper details how TIL maps are related to the molecular characterization of tumors and patient survival. The method may provide a foundation on how to better diagnose and create a treatment plan for cancers that are responsive to immune-based anti-cancer therapy, such as melanoma, lung, bladder, and certain types of colon cancer.