The new AI model automates the detection of tumour areas and calculates ER-positive and negative cells from whole slide images (WSIs), and facilitates visualisation of areas with high ER-positive density, or ‘hotspots’
Aiforia Clinical AI Model for Breast Cancer; ER. (Credit: Aiforia Technologies)
Finnish digital pathology start-up Aiforia Technologies has received the CE-IVD marking for its new clinical AI model designed to enable breast cancer diagnostics.
The new ‘Aiforia Clinical AI Model for Breast Cancer; ER’ adds to the company’s range of CE-IVD marked clinical AI models for cancer diagnostics.
It has been designed to automate the calculation of oestrogen receptors (ER), a type of proteins that are present in the majority of breast cancers.
ER serves as an important biomarker in the diagnosis, and forms a commonly used predictive factor for treatment and prognostic factor for survival in breast cancer.
The AI model automates the detection of tumour areas and calculates ER-positive and negative cells from whole slide images (WSIs), and selected areas.
Also, it facilitates visualisation of areas with high ER-positive density, or ‘hotspots’ and displays the AI-assisted image analysis results to pathologists.
Aiforia Technologies clinical products director Juuso Juhila said: “The Aiforia Clinical AI Model for ER showed to produce robust, quantifiable and consistent data.
“This in turn can lead to significant time savings and clinical workflow improvements for pathology labs as the evaluation time per case required from a pathologist is reduced.
“The AI model also provides the ability to predict which patients are most likely to respond to endocrine therapy, a highly efficacious targeted breast cancer treatment.”
According to the company, automation and digital tools can help clinical pathology labs increase their speed and accuracy to enable timely diagnosis and treatment for patients.
Aiforia claimed that it addresses the need for deep learning AI software and diagnostic tools for pathologists, along with automation in clinical workflows.
Its new Aiforia Clinical AI Model for Breast Cancer; ER is capable of improving the prognostic and predictive value of ER analysis in breast cancer diagnostics.
The company is currently developing Clinical Suites, a portfolio of novel deep learning AI and cloud-based tools that help pathologists to work with whole slide digitised images from different scanners and labs.
Aiforia Technologies CEO Jukka Tapaninen said: “We believe that AI and digital solutions are the future of cancer diagnostics. Aiforia already has the technology and capabilities to cater to this.
“Our aim is to help alleviate the challenges faced by global healthcare systems, to help reduce costs, and to ultimately support pathologists in their work to improve patient outcomes and enable precision diagnostics.”