Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39890777›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Prompt injection attacks on vision language models in oncology.

Jan Clusmann, Dyke Ferber, Isabella C Wiest, Carolin V Schneider, Titus J Brinker, Sebastian Foersch, Daniel Truhn, Jakob Nikolas Kather

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
21citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed.

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  12. Knowledgeable Language Models as Black-Box Optimizers for Personalized Medicine.... International Conference on Learning Representations · 2026
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  18. [Applications, challenges and a trustworthy use of artificial intelligence in public health].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Jan ClusmannElse Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Dyke FerberElse Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Isabella C WiestElse Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Carolin V SchneiderElse Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Titus J BrinkerDigital Biomarkers for Oncology Group, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
Sebastian FoerschInstitute of Pathology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Daniel TruhnDepartment of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9605-0728
Jakob Nikolas KatherElse Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Jakob.Kather@ukdd.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3730-5348

Funding

Integration of epidemiology, pathology, immunology and outcomes in colorectal cancerR01CA263318 · NCI · BECKMAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE/CITY OF HOPE · PI STEPHEN B GRUBER · 2022 to 2026
$3.4M
NCI NIH HHS R01 CA263318
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Vision-language artificial intelligence models (VLMs) possess medical knowledge and can be employed in healthcare in numerous ways, including as image interpreters, virtual scribes, and general decision support systems. However, here, we demonstrate that current VLMs applied to medical tasks exhibit a fundamental security flaw: they can be compromised by prompt injection attacks. These can be used to output harmful information just by interacting with the VLM, without any access to its parameters. We perform a quantitative study to evaluate the vulnerabilities to these attacks in four state of the art VLMs: Claude-3 Opus, Claude-3.5 Sonnet, Reka Core, and GPT-4o. Using a set of N = 594 attacks, we show that all of these models are susceptible. Specifically, we show that embedding sub-visual prompts in manifold medical imaging data can cause the model to provide harmful output, and that these prompts are non-obvious to human observers. Thus, our study demonstrates a key vulnerability in medical VLMs which should be mitigated before widespread clinical adoption.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceMedical OncologyHumans

Identifiers

PMID39890777
PMCPMC11785991

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.