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Pathology

The age of foundation models

The development of clinically relevant artificial intelligence (AI) models has traditionally required access to extensive labelled datasets, which inevitably centre AI advances around large centres and private corporations. Data availability has also dictated the development of AI applications: most studies focus on common cancer types, and leave rare diseases behind. However, this paradigm is changing with the advent of foundation models, which enable the training of more powerful and robust AI systems using much smaller datasets.

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Fig. 1: A brief history of foundational models in pathology.

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Correspondence to Jakob Nikolas Kather.

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Competing interests

J.N.K. has acted as a consultant and/or adviser of AstraZeneca, Bioptimus, DoMore Diagnostics, Mindpeak, MultiplexDx, Owkin, Panakeia and Scailyte; has received speaker’s fees from AstraZeneca, Bayer, BMS, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, Fresenius, GSK, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer and Roche; and holds shares in StratifAI, and Synagen. J.L. declares no competing interests.

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Lipkova, J., Kather, J.N. The age of foundation models. Nat Rev Clin Oncol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-024-00941-8

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