Best article on Artificial intelligence in prostate cancer diagnosis
The team from the Ipatimup Pathological Anatomy Laboratory, which is part of the i3S, was recognised by the European Society of Pathology. The Society considered the team’s article on the diagnosis of prostate cancer assisted by artificial intelligence to be the best of 2023. Published in “Virchows Archiv”, the journal of the European Society of Pathology, the article describes a clinical-grade artificial intelligence tool designed to help pathologists detect, classify and quantify prostate cancer.
“Considering that we are one of the pioneering centres in Europe to use artificial intelligence as a guide for the diagnosis of prostate cancer, and the only ones in Portugal to use this tool, this award by the European Society reinforces the recognition by our peers of our long experience in computational pathology and acknowledges the originality of our scientific articles, which are always very practical and geared towards clinical use”, explains Catarina Eloy, first author of the article, Director of the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy at Ipatimup and Affiliated Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP).
This work, highlights the pathologist and researcher at i3S/Ipatimup, “compares the performance of four pathologists in a situation of diagnosing cancer in prostate biopsies with and without the help of artificial intelligence software”. For this, she adds, “a cohort of 105 biopsies was used”.
With the help of this software, highlights António Polónia, the last author of the article, “the pathologist has fewer doubts, seeks a second opinion less often, requests fewer additional tests and is quicker to prepare the report. All this while maintaining highly accurate diagnostic standards”.
Pathologist at the Ipatimup Pathological Anatomy Laboratory and Associate Professor at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Fernando Pessoa University, António Polónia also makes a point of stressing that “these artificial intelligence tools are always used under the supervision of the pathologist, who uses them with discretion and for the benefit of the patient”.