Computers trounce pathologists in predicting lung cancer type, severity | News Center | Stanford Medicine


Automating the analysis of slides of lung cancer tissue samples increases the accuracy of tumor classification and patient prognoses, according to a new study.

Computers can be trained to be more accurate than pathologists in assessing slides of lung cancer tissues, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The researchers found that a machine-learning approach to identifying critical disease-related features accurately differentiated between two types of lung cancers and predicted patient survival times better than the standard approach of pathologists classifying tumors by grade and stage.

“Pathology as it is practiced now is very subjective,” said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and chair of genetics. “Two highly skilled pathologists assessing the same slide will agree only about 60 percent of the time. This approach replaces this subjectivity with sophisticated, quantitative measurements that we feel are likely to improve patient outcomes.”

The research was published Aug. 16 in Nature Communications. Snyder, who directs the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, shares senior authorship of the study with Daniel Rubin, MD, assistant professor of radiology and of medicine. Graduate student Kun-Hsing Yu, MD, is the lead author of the study.

Source: Computers trounce pathologists in predicting lung cancer type, severity | News Center | Stanford Medicine

 

Raony Guimaraes