Digital pathology solutions firm Paige has announced the release of a groundbreaking AI product developed from Paige’s Pathology Foundation Model, Virchow. The new application can detect cancer across more than 17 different tissue types including skin, lung, and the gastrointestinal tract, along with multiple rare tumour types and metastatic deposits.
The new product is a result of Paige's collaboration with Microsoft. Enabled by unique computational resources provided by Microsoft Research, the new application has been built using one of the largest libraries of digitised images.
Traditionally, development of pathology cancer detection AI applications required large datasets, one tissue type at a time, often taking months or years to build at clinical grade. By leveraging its unique Foundation Model, Paige says it has surpassed these limitations. With data derived from over four million digitised slides, Paige's innovative approach removes the constraints of developing single-tissue products, making it possible to create cancer detection AI applications efficiently across a multitude of tumour types, a first in AI-based cancer diagnosis.
“The early success of our Foundation Model has been possible due to the size, quality, and diversity of the datasets we used to build it,” said Siqi Liu, PhD, director of AI Science at Paige. “Paige has access to one of the largest and most highly regarded pathology datasets globally, which allows us to leverage cutting-edge deep-learning approaches to train systems to detect common, complex, and even very rare cancer entities. Paige’s development provides the pathology community with the most powerful tools for diagnosis, prognosis, biomarker development, and targeted selection of patients for precision therapy,” he continued.
The exceptional performance of Paige’s multi-cancer application across various tissue types is considered state-of-the art in cancer pathology AI. Paige is committed to ensuring its AI applications are clinical grade and will therefore continue to seek FDA regulatory oversight for products based on the Foundation Model technology.
“We see FDA clearance as being critical to ensure that regulatory and safety standards are being upheld in the application of AI in cancer diagnostics across tumour types,” said Andy Moye, CEO of Paige. “Paige remains at the forefront of innovation and regulatory milestones, and we expect this multi-tissue detection model to benefit patients, pathologists, and the broader medical community. Our commitment to excellence is exemplified by this groundbreaking achievement, marking a significant leap forward in cancer diagnostics.”
“Beyond its multi-tissue capabilities, the Foundation Model and the use of its embeddings can also be leveraged as a critical building block in a variety of upstream and downstream applications across the entire healthcare continuum,” said Razik Yousfi, Senior Vice President of Technology at Paige. “By combining the outputs of the Foundation Model with data types from other modalities, including genomics, radiology, and other health data, one can derive exponentially greater insights about the nature of cancer, its behaviour, and response to specific treatments.”