The VANGUARD PATH Study
Digital pathology and AI – Advances in techniques and technology
digital pathology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) – advances in Prostate Biopsy reporting
Prostate Biopsies
Whilst many laboratories do still use glass slides and a microscope to review prostate biopsies, increasingly, over the last few years as technology has developed, digital pathology has become the norm in many places. For instance, in the Oxford lab in the John Radcliffe Hospital, digital pathology was introduced in around 2020. Funding from two awards; PathLAKE and PathLAKE Plus allowed the hospital NHS Trust to become a leading centre in the adoption of digital pathology, reaching the key milestone of being one of the first NHS Trusts in the UK to scan 100% of its cellular pathology surgical histology workload. Read more about Oxford and Philips teaming up to deploy innovative digital pathology network
Digital pathology means that the prostate biopsy glass slides are scanned and converted to digital files. Pathologists can read the digital slides using a screen rather than a microscope and this was particularly valuable, for instance, during the Covid pandemic, as the pathologists were able to continue providing a full service, often whilst working at home, as they no longer needed access to the actual glass slides. This meant that for patients, the pathology service continued uninterrupted.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Digital Pathology has also enabled the use of AI programmes which are now becoming increasingly available, and which offer different possibilities such as a prediction of how a patient's disease might progress or how they might respond to a certain treatment.
In the Vanguard Path study we are evaluating Artera's Multi-Modal AI (MMAI) also called the 'ArteraAI Prostate Test' which is a digital pathology-based image analysis test. The MMAI can potentially provide additional predictive information from prostate biopsy scanned slide images when used in conjunction with patient's clinical data.
To understand how we are using it in the Vanguard Path Study, and what it might mean for prostate cancer patients in the future, go to the Study Aims page.