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Wagner SJ, Reisenbüchler D, West NP, Niehues JM, Zhu J, Foersch S, Veldhuizen GP, Quirke P, Grabsch HI, van den Brandt PA, Hutchins GGA, Richman SD, Yuan T, Langer R, Jenniskens JCA, Offermans K, Mueller W, Gray R, Gruber SB, Greenson JK, Rennert G, Bonner JD, Schmolze D, Jonnagaddala J, Hawkins NJ, Ward RL, Morton D, Seymour M, Magill L, Nowak M, Hay J, Koelzer VH, Church DN, Matek C, Geppert C, Peng C, Zhi C, Ouyang X, James JA, Loughrey MB, Salto-Tellez M, Brenner H, Hoffmeister M, Truhn D, Schnabel JA, Boxberg M, Peng T, Kather JN. Transformer-based biomarker prediction from colorectal cancer histology: A large-scale multicentric study. Cancer Cell 2023; 41:1650-1661.e4. [PMID: 37652006 PMCID: PMC10507381 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Revised: 06/18/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Deep learning (DL) can accelerate the prediction of prognostic biomarkers from routine pathology slides in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, current approaches rely on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and have mostly been validated on small patient cohorts. Here, we develop a new transformer-based pipeline for end-to-end biomarker prediction from pathology slides by combining a pre-trained transformer encoder with a transformer network for patch aggregation. Our transformer-based approach substantially improves the performance, generalizability, data efficiency, and interpretability as compared with current state-of-the-art algorithms. After training and evaluating on a large multicenter cohort of over 13,000 patients from 16 colorectal cancer cohorts, we achieve a sensitivity of 0.99 with a negative predictive value of over 0.99 for prediction of microsatellite instability (MSI) on surgical resection specimens. We demonstrate that resection specimen-only training reaches clinical-grade performance on endoscopic biopsy tissue, solving a long-standing diagnostic problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophia J Wagner
- Helmholtz Munich - German Research Center for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany; School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EFFZ), Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Daniel Reisenbüchler
- Helmholtz Munich - German Research Center for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany
| | - Nicholas P West
- Institute of Pathology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Jan Moritz Niehues
- Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EFFZ), Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Jiefu Zhu
- Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EFFZ), Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Sebastian Foersch
- Institute of Pathology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | | | - Philip Quirke
- Division of Pathology and Data Analytics, Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | - Heike I Grabsch
- Division of Pathology and Data Analytics, Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; Department of Pathology, GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Piet A van den Brandt
- Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Gordon G A Hutchins
- Division of Pathology and Data Analytics, Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | - Susan D Richman
- Division of Pathology and Data Analytics, Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | - Tanwei Yuan
- Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Rupert Langer
- Institute of Pathology und Molecular Pathology, Johannes Kepler University Hospital Linz, Linz, Österreich
| | - Josien C A Jenniskens
- Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Kelly Offermans
- Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University Medical Center+, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | | | - Richard Gray
- Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Stephen B Gruber
- Center for Precision Medicine and Department of Medical Oncology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA
| | - Joel K Greenson
- Department of Pathology, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, USA
| | - Gad Rennert
- Department of Community Medicine & Epidemiology, Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center, Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine, Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center and Technion Faculty of Medicine, Clalit National Cancer Control Center, Haifa, Israel
| | - Joseph D Bonner
- Department of Community Medicine & Epidemiology, Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center, Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Daniel Schmolze
- Center for Precision Medicine and Department of Medical Oncology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA, USA
| | - Jitendra Jonnagaddala
- School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Nicholas J Hawkins
- School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Robyn L Ward
- School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Dion Morton
- University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | | | - Laura Magill
- University of Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit, Birmingham, UK
| | - Marta Nowak
- Department of Pathology and Molecular Pathology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Jennifer Hay
- Glasgow Tissue Research Facility, University of Glasgow, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, UK
| | - Viktor H Koelzer
- Department of Pathology and Molecular Pathology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, UK
| | - David N Church
- Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, UK; Oxford NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
| | - Christian Matek
- Helmholtz Munich - German Research Center for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany; Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Erlangen, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany; Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN (CCC), University Hospital Erlangen, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Carol Geppert
- Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Erlangen, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany; Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN (CCC), University Hospital Erlangen, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Chaolong Peng
- Medical School, Jianggang Shan University, Jiangxi, China
| | - Cheng Zhi
- Department of Pathology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaoming Ouyang
- Department of Pathology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jacqueline A James
- Precision Medicine Centre of Excellence, Health Sciences Building, The Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK; Regional Molecular Diagnostic Service, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, UK; The Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Maurice B Loughrey
- The Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK; Department of Cellular Pathology, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, UK; Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - Manuel Salto-Tellez
- Precision Medicine Centre of Excellence, Health Sciences Building, The Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK; Regional Molecular Diagnostic Service, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, UK; Integrated Pathology Unit, Institute for Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK
| | - Hermann Brenner
- Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Preventive Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Michael Hoffmeister
- Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Daniel Truhn
- Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
| | - Julia A Schnabel
- Helmholtz Munich - German Research Center for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany; School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Melanie Boxberg
- Institute of Pathology, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany; Institute of Pathology Munich-North, Munich, Germany
| | - Tingying Peng
- Helmholtz Munich - German Research Center for Environment and Health, Munich, Germany.
| | - Jakob Nikolas Kather
- Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health (EFFZ), Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany; Division of Pathology and Data Analytics, Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; Medical Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg.
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