New AI system identifies 102 brain tumor types in minutes instead of weeks
Brain tumors have long forced pathologists into a difficult balancing act. Under the microscope, many look alike at first glance. However, small molecular differences can separate a relatively manageable disease from one that demands urgent, aggressive treatment. Getting that distinction right often depends on specialized testing that can take days and costs hundreds of euros. Unfortunately, this kind of testing is still out of reach in many parts of the world. The system, called Hetairos, was designed to read routine hematoxylin and eosin, or H&E, tissue sections. These are the standard stained slides used in pathology labs worldwide. From those digitized slides alone, it predicts which molecular subgroup a central nervous system tumor belongs to. This covers 102 tumor subtypes drawn from the current World Health Organization classification. That matters because brain and spinal cord tumors are not a single disease. They are a sprawling family of cancers and related growths with striking biological diversity. In recent years, DNA methylation profiling has become one of the most important tools for sorting them accurately. It can …
