Lymphoid infiltration at tumor margins is a key prognostic marker in solid tumors, playing a crucial role in guiding immunotherapy decisions. Current assessment methods, heavily reliant on immunohistochemistry (IHC), face challenges in tumor margin delineation and are affected by tissue preservation conditions. In contrast, we propose a Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining-based approach, underpinned by an advanced lymphocyte segmentation model trained on a public dataset for the precise detection of CD3+ and CD20+ lymphocytes. In our colorectal cancer study, we demonstrate that our H&E-based method offers a compelling alternative to traditional IHC, achieving comparable results in many cases. Our method's validity is further explored through a Turing test, involving blinded assessments by a pathologist of anonymized curves from H&E and IHC slides. This approach invites the medical community to consider Turing tests as a standard for evaluating medical applications involving expert human evaluation, thereby opening new avenues for enhancing cancer management and immunotherapy planning.

AI can mimic human thinking abilities like problem-solving and do it faster and more accurately. It's even solved problems thought unsolvable. Google Deepmind's AlphaFold can predict the shape amino acids will fold into, a challenge biologists have wrestled with for the past 50 years. To use the technology to speed up new drug development, Google's parent company Alphabet recently launched Isomorphic Laboratories. While machines outperforming the human brain may seem alarming, businesses are finding when human and machine capabilities are combined, they get the best results.

A study published in The Lancet Digital Health by UPMC and University of Pittsburgh researchers demonstrates the highest accuracy to date in recognizing and characterizing prostate cancer using an artificial intelligence (AI) program. The AI technology used in the study is from of Ibex Medical Analytics. "Humans are good at recognizing anomalies, but they have their own biases or past experience," said senior author Rajiv Dhir, M.D., M.B.A., chief pathologist and vice chair of pathology at UPMC Shadyside and professor of biomedical informatics at Pitt. "Machines are detached from the whole story. To train the AI to recognize prostate cancer, Dhir and his colleagues provided images from more than a million parts of stained tissue slides taken from patient biopsies. Each image was labeled by expert pathologists to teach the AI how to discriminate between healthy and abnormal tissue. The algorithm was then tested on a separate set of 1,600 slides taken from 100 consecutive patients seen at UPMC for suspected prostate cancer. During testing, the AI demonstrated 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity at detecting prostate cancer -- significantly higher than previously reported for algorithms working from tissue slides. Also, this is the first algorithm to extend beyond cancer detection, reporting high performance for tumor grading, sizing and invasion of the surrounding nerves. These all are clinically important features required as part of the pathology report. AI also flagged six slides that were not noted by the expert pathologists. But Dhir explained that this doesn't necessarily mean that the machine is superior to humans. For example, in the course of evaluating these cases, the pathologist could have simply seen enough evidence of malignancy elsewhere in that patient's samples to recommend treatment. For less experienced pathologists, though, the algorithm could act as a failsafe to catch cases that might otherwise be missed. "Algorithms like this are especially useful in lesions that are atypical," Dhir said. "A nonspecialized person may not be able to make the correct assessment.

Prostate biopsy with cancer probability (blue is low, red is high). This case was originally diagnosed as benign but changed to cancer upon further review. The AI accurately detected cancer in this tricky case. A study published today (July 27, 2020) in The Lancet Digital Health by UPMC and University of Pittsburgh researchers demonstrates the highest accuracy to date in recognizing and characterizing prostate cancer using an artificial intelligence (AI) program. "Humans are good at recognizing anomalies, but they have their own biases or past experience," said senior author Rajiv Dhir, M.D., M.B.A., chief pathologist and vice chair of pathology at UPMC Shadyside and professor of biomedical informatics at Pitt. "Machines are detached from the whole story. To train the AI to recognize prostate cancer, Dhir and his colleagues provided images from more than a million parts of stained tissue slides taken from patient biopsies. Each image was labeled by expert pathologists to teach the AI how to discriminate between healthy and abnormal tissue. The algorithm was then tested on a separate set of 1,600 slides taken from 100 consecutive patients seen at UPMC for suspected prostate cancer. During testing, the AI demonstrated 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity at detecting prostate cancer -- significantly higher than previously reported for algorithms working from tissue slides. Also, this is the first algorithm to extend beyond cancer detection, reporting high performance for tumor grading, sizing, and invasion of the surrounding nerves. These all are clinically important features required as part of the pathology report. AI also flagged six slides that were not noted by the expert pathologists. But Dhir explained that this doesn't necessarily mean that the machine is superior to humans. For example, in the course of evaluating these cases, the pathologist could have simply seen enough evidence of malignancy elsewhere in that patient's samples to recommend treatment. For less experienced pathologists, though, the algorithm could act as a failsafe to catch cases that might otherwise be missed. "Algorithms like this are especially useful in lesions that are atypical," Dhir said. "A nonspecialized person may not be able to make the correct assessment.

"Humans are good at recognizing anomalies, but they have their own biases or past experience," said senior author Rajiv Dhir, M.D., M.B.A., chief pathologist and vice chair of pathology at UPMC Shadyside and professor of biomedical informatics at Pitt. "Machines are detached from the whole story. To train the AI to recognize prostate cancer, Dhir and his colleagues provided images from more than a million parts of stained tissue slides taken from patient biopsies. Each image was labeled by expert pathologists to teach the AI how to discriminate between healthy and abnormal tissue. The algorithm was then tested on a separate set of 1,600 slides taken from 100 consecutive patients seen at UPMC for suspected prostate cancer. During testing, the AI demonstrated 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity at detecting prostate cancer -- significantly higher than previously reported for algorithms working from tissue slides. Also, this is the first algorithm to extend beyond cancer detection, reporting high performance for tumor grading, sizing and invasion of the surrounding nerves. These all are clinically important features required as part of the pathology report. AI also flagged six slides that were not noted by the expert pathologists. But Dhir explained that this doesn't necessarily mean that the machine is superior to humans. For example, in the course of evaluating these cases, the pathologist could have simply seen enough evidence of malignancy elsewhere in that patient's samples to recommend treatment. For less experienced pathologists, though, the algorithm could act as a failsafe to catch cases that might otherwise be missed. "Algorithms like this are especially useful in lesions that are atypical," Dhir said. "A nonspecialized person may not be able to make the correct assessment.

Prostate biopsy with cancer probability (blue is low, red is high). This case was originally diagnosed as benign but changed to cancer upon further review. The AI accurately detected cancer in this tricky case. A study published today (July 27, 2020) in The Lancet Digital Health by UPMC and University of Pittsburgh researchers demonstrates the highest accuracy to date in recognizing and characterizing prostate cancer using an artificial intelligence (AI) program. "Humans are good at recognizing anomalies, but they have their own biases or past experience," said senior author Rajiv Dhir, M.D., M.B.A., chief pathologist and vice chair of pathology at UPMC Shadyside and professor of biomedical informatics at Pitt. "Machines are detached from the whole story. To train the AI to recognize prostate cancer, Dhir and his colleagues provided images from more than a million parts of stained tissue slides taken from patient biopsies. Each image was labeled by expert pathologists to teach the AI how to discriminate between healthy and abnormal tissue. The algorithm was then tested on a separate set of 1,600 slides taken from 100 consecutive patients seen at UPMC for suspected prostate cancer. During testing, the AI demonstrated 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity at detecting prostate cancer -- significantly higher than previously reported for algorithms working from tissue slides. Also, this is the first algorithm to extend beyond cancer detection, reporting high performance for tumor grading, sizing, and invasion of the surrounding nerves. These all are clinically important features required as part of the pathology report. AI also flagged six slides that were not noted by the expert pathologists. But Dhir explained that this doesn't necessarily mean that the machine is superior to humans. For example, in the course of evaluating these cases, the pathologist could have simply seen enough evidence of malignancy elsewhere in that patient's samples to recommend treatment. For less experienced pathologists, though, the algorithm could act as a failsafe to catch cases that might otherwise be missed. "Algorithms like this are especially useful in lesions that are atypical," Dhir said. "A nonspecialized person may not be able to make the correct assessment.

Our results show that it is possible to train an AI system to detect and grade prostate cancer on the same level as leading experts,