Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41013460›Full record

ArticleDiagnostic pathology2025

Artificial Intelligence-driven image analysis for standardised programmed death-ligand 1 expression evaluation in non-small cell lung cancer.

Chong Ge, Yi Shi, Wei Wang, Anli Zhang, Mengqi Huang, Fang Zhao, Ao Li, Zhenzhong Feng, Minghui Wang, Haibo Wu

Abstract read
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Article in Diagnostic pathology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

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4citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Chong Ge *Department of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China.
Yi Shi *Department of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China.
Wei WangDepartment of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China.
Anli ZhangDepartment of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China.
Mengqi HuangDepartment of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230601, China.
Fang ZhaoThe School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230027, China.
Ao LiThe School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230027, China. aoli@ustc.edu.cn.
Zhenzhong FengDepartment of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230601, China. fzzapple1976@163.com.
Minghui WangThe School of Information Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230027, China. mhwang@ustc.edu.cn.
Haibo WuDepartment of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China. wuhaibo@ustc.edu.cn.

Funding

Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation 2308085MF191Joint Fund for Medical Artificial Intelligence MAI2023C014National Natural Science Foundation of China 61871361National Natural Science Foundation of China 62371435Research Funds of Centre for Leading Medicine and Advanced Technologies of IHM 2023IHM01043
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAccurate assessment of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) immunohistochemical (IHC) expression is critical for immunotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Yet, interpreting its staining is challenging, time-consuming, and causes inter-observer variability, potentially mis-stratifying patients. This necessitates the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) model to effectively quantify PD-L1 expression. Hence, we developed an AI-based deep-learning approach to automatically assess PD-L1 expression in NSCLC using IHC 22C3 assay-stained whole slide images (WSIs).

methodsA total of 706 patients with NSCLC were included in this study and 1212 WSIs were collected from three distinct study cohorts. We accurately matched the hematoxylin and eosin-stained images of the internal dataset with the IHC WSIs. Foreground regions containing tumor tissue were extracted from WSIs, and a multi-granular multiple-instance learning approach employing instance embeddings with coarse and fine granularities was implemented to extract patch-level morphological features. A multi-grained expression interpreter-based model aggregated these features to stratify PD-L1 expression status.

resultsThe model showed strong interpretive ability in all three cohorts and wide applicability to different specimen types. The macro-average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were 0.940/0.915/0.944 for surgical specimens, 0.955/0.844/0.865 for biopsy specimens, and 0.901/0.958/0.883 for metastases.

conclusionThis study emphasizes the potential benefits of deep learning in automatically, rapidly, and accurately inferring PD-L1 expression from complex IHC images. It also showcases how AI frameworks can improve routine digital pathology workflows in current PD-L1 detection methods.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceB7-H1 AntigenBiomarkers, TumorCarcinoma, Non-Small-Cell LungImage Interpretation, Computer-AssistedImage Processing, Computer-AssistedLung NeoplasmsDeep LearningHumansImmunohistochemistryB7-H1 AntigenBiomarkers, TumorCD274 protein, humanArtificial IntelligenceDeep LearningImmunohistochemistryNon-small cell lung cancerProgrammed death-ligand 1Whole slide imaging

Identifiers

PMID41013460
PMCPMC12465877

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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.