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UPMC Researchers Develop Biomarkers That Identify Biological Age While Also Predicting Disease Risk

Scientists turned to metabolomics to find cause of biological aging and release index of 25 metabolites that predict healthy and rapid agers

Researchers at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have identified biomarkers in human blood which appear to affect biological aging (aka, senescence). Since biological aging is connected to a person’s overall condition, further research and studies confirming UPMC’s findings will likely lead to a new panel of tests clinical laboratories can run to support physicians’ assessment of their patients’ health.

UPMC’s research “points to pathways and compounds that may underlie biological age, shedding light on why people age differently and suggesting novel targets for interventions that could slow aging and promote health span, the length of time a person is healthy,” according to a UPMC news release.

“We decided to look at metabolites because they’re very dynamic,” Aditi Gurkar, PhD, the study’s senior author, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Gurkar is Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Aging Institute at the University of Pittsburg. “They can change because of the diet, they can change because of exercise, they can change because of lifestyle changes like smoking,” she added.

The scientists identified 25 metabolites that “showed clear differences” in the metabolomes of both healthy and rapid agers. Based on those findings, the researchers developed the Healthy Aging Metabolic (HAM) Index, a panel of metabolites that predicted healthy agers regardless of gender or race.

The researchers published their findings in the journal Aging Cell titled, “A Molecular Index for Biological Age Identified from the Metabolome and Senescence-associated Secretome in Humans.”

“Age is more than just a number,” said Aditi Gurkar, PhD (above), Assistant Professor of Geriatric Medicine at University of Pittsburg School of Medicine and the study’s senior author in a news release. “Imagine two people aged 65: One rides a bike to work and goes skiing on the weekends and the other can’t climb a flight of stairs. They have the same chronological age, but very different biological ages. Why do these two people age differently? This question drives my research.” Gurkar’s research may one day lead to new clinical laboratory tests physicians will order when evaluating their patients’ health. (Photo copyright: University of Pittsburg.)

Clear Differences in Metabolites

According to the National Cancer Institute, a metabolite is a “substance made or used when the body breaks down food, drugs, or chemicals, or its own tissue (for example, fat or muscle tissue). This process, called metabolism, makes energy and the materials needed for growth, reproduction, and maintaining health. It also helps get rid of toxic substances.”

The UPMC researchers used metabolomics—the study of chemical process in the body that involves metabolites, other processes, and biproducts of cell metabolism—to create a “molecular fingerprint” of blood drawn from individuals in two separate study groups.

They included:

  • People over age 75 able to walk a flight of stairs or walk for 15 minutes without a break, and
  • People, age 65 to 75, who needed to rest during stair climbing and walk challenges.

The researchers found “clear differences” in the metabolomes of healthy agers as compared to rapid agers, suggesting that “metabolites in the blood could reflect biological age,” according to the UPMC news release.

“Other studies have looked at genetics to measure biological aging, but genes are very static. The genes you’re born with are the genes you die with,” said Gurkar in the news release.

Past studies on aging have explored other markers of biological age such as low grade-inflammation, muscle mass, and physical strength. But those markers fell short in “representing complexity of biological aging,” the UPMC study authors wrote in Aging Cell.

“One potential advantage of metabolomics over other ‘omic’ approaches is that metabolites are the final downstream products, and changes are closely related to the immediate (path) physiologic state of an individual,” they added.

The researchers used an artificial intelligence (AI) model that could identify “potential drivers of biological traits” and found three metabolites “that were most likely to promote healthy aging or drive rapid aging. In future research, they plan to delve into how these metabolites, and the molecular pathways that produce them, contribute to biological aging and explore interventions that could slow this process,” the new release noted.

“While it’s great that we can predict biological aging in older adults, what would be even more exciting is a blood test that, for example, can tell someone who’s 35 that they have a biological age more like a 45-year-old,” Gurkar said. “That person could then think about changing aspects of their lifestyle early—whether that’s improving their sleep, diet or exercise regime—to hopefully reverse their biological age.”

Looking Ahead

The UPMC scientists plan more studies to explore metabolites that promote healthy aging and rapid aging, and interventions to slow disease progression.

It’s possible that the blood-based HAM Index may one day become a diagnostic tool physicians and clinical laboratories use to aid monitoring of chronic diseases. As a commonly ordered blood test, it could help people find out biological age and make necessary lifestyle changes to improve their health and longevity.

With the incidence of chronic disease a major problem in the US and other developed countries, a useful diagnostic and monitoring tool like HAM could become a commonly ordered diagnostic procedure. In turn, that would allow clinical laboratories to track the same patient over many years, with the ability to use multi-year lab test data to flag patients whose biomarkers are changing in the wrong direction—thus enabling physicians to be proactive in treating their patients.

—Donna Marie Pocius

Related Information:

New Study Reveals Molecular Fingerprint of Biological Aging

Blood Test Could Reveal Your Biological Age and Predict Disease Risk

A Molecular Index for Biological Age Identified from the Metabolome and Senescence-associated Secretome in Humans

Family History with Cancer Led Professor into “Healthy Aging” Research

Zombie Cells, Aging and Health

Pitt Researcher Uncovers Cellular Signs of Healthy Aging

True Biological Age is Hidden in Several Newly Identified Blood Markers

The Senescence-associated Secretome as An Indicator of Age and Medical Risk

Patient Rights Group Says Too Many Hospitals Are Not Complying with CMS Price Transparency Rules

Only about a third of the hospitals surveyed are in full compliance with giving public access to prices, the watchdog group contends, but the AHA disputes its methodology

It’s been almost four years since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) enacted its Hospital Price Transparency rule which requires hospitals—including their medical laboratories—to make their prices available and easily accessible to the public. But according to a 2024 report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org (PRA), just 34.5% of reviewed hospitals are fully compliant with the transparency rule. That’s a slight decrease from the 36% compliance rate the PRA listed in its 2023 report, the watchdog group stated in a blog post.

Released on Feb. 29, this was the group’s sixth semi-annual hospital price transparency report since the CMS rule took effect in 2021.

The rule “requires hospitals to post all prices online, easily accessible and searchable, in the form of (i) a single machine-readable standard charges file for all items, services, and drugs by all payers and all plans, the de-identified minimum and maximum negotiated rates, and all discounted cash prices, as well as (ii) prices for the 300 most common shoppable services either as a consumer-friendly standard charges display listing actual prices or, alternatively, as a price estimator tool,” the report states.

The required viewable prices are to be for, among others, medical imaging, clinical laboratory testing, and outpatient procedures such as a colonoscopies, etc.

“With full transparency, consumers can benefit from competition to make informed decisions, protect from overcharges, billing errors, and fraud, and lower their costs,” the report states. “Employer and union plans can use pricing and claims data to improve their plan designs and direct members to lower cost, high-quality facilities. However, continued noncompliance impedes this ability.”

At any time, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) could decide to file charges against a hospital or a clinical laboratory for not posting their prices on their websites in compliance with the federal rule. Such an action by DOJ officials would be to specifically put the entire industry on notice that there will be consequences for non-compliance.

The PRA’s report provides hospitals and clinical laboratories with a reminder that consumer watchdogs are also monitoring compliance.

“Our comprehensive study of 2,000 hospitals indicates nearly two-thirds (65.5%) of hospitals reviewed continue failing to fully comply with the rule, yet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has only fined fourteen hospitals for noncompliance out of the thousands found to not be meeting all of the rule’s requirements. When hospitals don’t post their prices, they can charge whatever they want,” wrote PRA Founder and Chairman Cynthia Fisher (above) in a letter to President Biden. Hospital medical laboratories are also required to post their prices for tests. (Photo copyright: PatientRightsAdvocate.org.)

Increasing Penalties for Non-compliance

In a March 18 Health Affairs blog post on price transparency, two healthcare policy experts—David Muhlestein, PhD, JD, Chief Research Officer at Leavitt Partners, Washington, DC, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of The Dartmouth Institute (TDI) at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College; and Yuvraj Pathak, PhD, Associate Director at West Health—argued that CMS should increase penalties for non-compliance, so the dollar amounts are greater than the cost of compliance.

To compile their report, PRA analysts examined the websites of 2,000 US hospitals between September 3, 2023, and January 13, 2023, and found that 1,311, or 65.5%, were not in full compliance, mostly due to “missing or significantly incomplete pricing data,” the report states.

More than 6,000 licensed hospitals operate in the US, the report notes. The group said it focused on hospitals owned by the largest US health systems.

Among the notable findings:

  • The 2023 report found that 98% of Kaiser Permanente’s 42 hospitals were in full compliance with the rule, but in the 2024 study, none were compliant because the hospitals began posting multiple files instead of a single file.
  • In total, 103 hospitals rated as noncompliant in the previous report were found to be compliant in the new analysis. Conversely, 135 hospitals previously rated as compliant were listed as noncompliant in the 2024 report.

The report lauded three hospitals for posting “exemplary files” that were “easily accessible, downloadable, machine-readable, and including all negotiated rates by payer and plan.” Those were Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Mass.; Christus Santa Rosa Medical Center in San Antonio; and UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wis.

In its discussion of the findings, PRA called on CMS to step up enforcement of the pricing transparency rule. The group also wants the government to close what it describes as the “estimator tool loophole,” which allows hospitals to list non-binding price estimates and price ranges instead of concrete prices.

“Price estimator tools do not achieve the goals of price transparency policy and fundamentally undermine the intent of the regulations,” the PRA’s report contends.

AHA Pushes Back on PRA Assessment

The American Hospital Association (AHA) took issue with PRA’s methodology, as Dark Daily reported in “CMS Proposes New Amendments to Federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule That May Affect Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups.”

In response to the 2023 PRA report, AHA Group Vice President for Public Policy Molly Smith issued the following statement, “Once again, Patient Rights Advocate has put out a report that blatantly misconstrues, ignores, and mischaracterizes hospitals’ compliance with federal price transparency regulations. The AHA has repeatedly debunked point-by-point Patient Rights Advocate’s intentionally misleading ‘reports’ on price transparency.”

Citing CMS data, Smith said that as of 2022, 70% of US hospitals had complied with two key federal rules:

  • One requiring hospitals to post machine-readable files with pricing information.
  • The other mandating a list of prices for at least 300 “shoppable” services.

More than 80% of hospitals had complied with at least one of the rules, she contended in an AHA press release.

Speaking to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, PRA Founder and Chairman Cynthia Fisher said her group performs a more in-depth study of pricing data compared with CMS.

“They did not do a comprehensive review,” she told the publication. “We do a deep dive for full compliance.”

The PRA study came on the heels of a January report from Turquoise Health that offered a rosier assessment of hospital compliance, albeit with different criteria. According to the Turquoise report, as of Dec. 15, 2023:

  • 90.7% of 6,357 US hospitals had posted machine-readable files,
  • 83.1% posted information about negotiated rates, and
  • 77.3% posted cash rates.

The Turquoise Health end-to-end price transparency platform uses a 5-point system to rate the quality of hospitals’ machine-readable files and said that more than 50% scored five stars. Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists may find it timely to review their lab organization’s compliance with this federal price transparency rule.

—Stephen Beale

Related Information:

Just 34.5% of Reviewed Hospitals Fully Compliant with Federally-Mandated Price Transparency Rule

Sixth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report

Improving Hospital Compliance with Price Transparency Rules

Only Half of LA Hospitals Publish Prices as Required by Law, Hindering Patient Choice

34.5% of Hospitals Complying with Price Transparency Rule, Report Says

Little Progress Made with Hospital Price Transparency Compliance

CMS Releases Tool to Validate Price Transparency File Compliance

Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Dips: Report

Hospitals Backslide on Price Transparency Test

Moving into 2024: State of Price Transparency

Hospitals Finally Reached Widespread Price Transparency Compliance in 2023

More Hospitals, Payers Compliant with Price Transparency Laws

University of Pittsburgh Pathologists Create World Tumor Registry to Assist Medical Professionals in the Identification and Diagnosis of Cancers

As the cancer registry expands it will increasing become more useful to anatomic pathologists, histopathologists, oncologists, and even clinical laboratories

Oncologists, histopathologists, anatomic pathologists, and other cancer physicians now have a powerful new Wikipedia-style tumor registry to help them with their diagnoses and in educating patients on their specific types of cancer. Clinical laboratory managers may find it useful to understand the value this searchable database, and it can help their staff pathologists as well.

Free to use by both physicians and patients the World Tumor Registry (WTR) is designed “to minimize diagnostic errors by giving doctors a searchable online database of cancers that have been collected and categorized with cellular images collected from around the world,” Pittsburg-Post Gazette reported.

Prompt, accurate cancer diagnoses offer cancer patients the best chance for optimal treatment outcomes. However, many medical professionals around the globe do not have the training and resources to offer superior cancer diagnoses. That deficiency can translate to inferior treatment options and lower survival rates among cancer patients. 

To help improve cancer diagnoses, pathologist Yuri E. Nikiforov, MD, PhD, Division Director, Molecular and Genomic Pathology, Vice Chair of the Department of Pathology,  and Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, developed the WTR to provide educational and practical resources for individuals and organizations involved in cancer research.

Officially announced at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) annual convention, the WTR is an open-access catalog of digital microscopic images of human cancer types and subtypes.

The lower cost of technology and improved speed of access via the internet are technologies enabling this effort.

“We are creating sort of a Wikipedia for cancer images,” said Alyaksandr V. Nikitski, MD, PhD (above), Research Assistant Professor of Pathology, Division of Molecular and Genomic Pathology at Pittsburg School of Medicine and Administrative Director of the WTR, in an exclusive interview with Dark Daily. “Anyone in the world, if they can access the internet, can look at the well-annotated, diagnostic digital slides of cancer,” said Nikitski. Clinical laboratories may also find this new pathology tool useful. (Photo copyright: Alyaksandr V. Nikitski)

Minimizing Diagnostic Errors

Based in Pittsburgh, the WTR is freely available to anyone for viewing digital pathology slides of known cancer tumors as well as borderline and questionable cases. On the website, individuals can search for pictures of tumors in the registry by diagnosis, specific cohorts, and by microscopic features. Individuals may search further by tumor type and subtype to receive a picture of related tumors. 

According to the WTR website, the mission of the nonprofit “is to minimize diagnostic errors, eliminate inequality in cancer recognition, diagnosis, and treatment in diverse populations, and improve outcomes by increasing access to the diagnostic pathology expertise and knowledge of microscopic characteristics of cancers that occur in different geographic, environmental, and socio-economic settings.”

This new comprehensive initiative will eventually encompass cancer images from all over the world. 

“Let’s assume that I am a pathologist or a trainee who has little experience, or I don’t have access to collections of atypical tumors,” Nikitski explained. “I can view tumor collections online [in the WTR database] and check how typical and rare tumors look in various geographic regions and environmental settings.”

Once an image of a slide is selected, users will then receive a brief case history of the tumor in addition to such data as the age of the patient, their geographic location, sex, family history of the disease, and the size and stage of the tumor.

Increasing Probability of Correct Diagnosis

Pathologists and clinicians may also predict the probability of a particular diagnosis by searching under the microscopic feature of the database. This feature utilizes an innovative classifier known as PathDxFinder, where users may compare a slide from their lab to slides in the database by certain criteria. This includes:

After completing the questions above, the user presses the “predict diagnosis” button to receive the probability of cancer and most likely diagnosis based on the answers provided in the questionnaire.

WTR Editorial Boards

The WTR represents collections for each type of cancer site, such as lung or breast. A chairperson and editorial board are responsible for reviewing submitted slides before they are placed online. The editorial boards include 20 pathologists who are experts in diagnosing cancer categories, Nikitski explained.

Thousands of identified microscopic whole slide images (WSI) representing various types of cancer are deposited by the editors and other contributors to the project. The editorial board then carefully analyzes and compiles the data before posting the images for public viewing. 

The editorial boards are located in five world regions:

  • Africa and the Middle East
  • Asia and Oceania
  • Central and South America
  • North America and Europe
  • Northern Asia

Any physicians or pathologists can contribute images to the database, by “simply selecting the editor of their region on the website, writing their name, and asking if they can submit tumor cases,” Nikitski stated.

“We have established a platform that allows pathologists to contact editors who are in the same geographic region,” he added.

Helping Physicians Identify Cancer Types 

In a YouTube video, Nikiforov states that the WTR is an “educational nonprofit organization rooted in [the] beliefs that every cancer patient deserves accurate and timely diagnosis as the first and essential step in better treatment and outcomes.”

“We believe this can be achieved only when modern diagnostic tools and technologies are freely available to every physician and pathologist. Only when we understand how microscopic features of cancer vary in different geographic, environmental and ethnic populations, and only by integrating histopathology with clinical immunohistochemical and molecular genetic information for every cancer type,” he stated.

Since patient privacy is important, the database contains only basic data about patients, and all patient information is protected.

Launched in March, there are currently more than 400 thyroid tumor slides available to view in the online database. At the time of the announcement, the WTR platform was planned to be implemented in three phases:

  • Thyroid cancer (released in March of this year).
  • Lung cancer and breast cancer (anticipated to be completed by the third quarter of 2026).
  • Remaining cancers, including brain, soft tissue and bone, colorectal, head and neck, hematolymphoid, female genital, liver, pancreatic, prostate and male genital, skin, urinary system, pediatric, other endocrine cancers, and rare cancers (anticipated to be completed by the end of 2029).

“We believe that this resource will help physicians and pathologists practicing in small or big or remote medical centers to learn how cancer looks under a microscope in their own communities,” Nikiforov said in the video. “We also see WTR as a platform that connects physicians and scientists from different parts of the world who can work together to better understand and treat cancer.”

Catalogs like the World Tumor Registry might potentially create a pool of information that that could be mined by analytical and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms to ferret out new ways to improve the diagnosis of certain types of cancer and even enable earlier diagnoses. 

“It is an extremely useful resource,” Nikitski said.

Anatomic pathologists will certainly find it so. And clinical laboratory managers may find the information useful as well when interacting with histopathologists and oncologists. 

—JP Schlingman

Related Information:

“Free for the World:” Pittsburgh Pathologist Prepares to Launch a Wikipedia for Cancer

USCAP 113th Annual Meeting

World Tumor Registry

Video: Message from the Founder and President of the World Tumor Registry

US and UK Researchers Simultaneously Develop New Tests to Detect Prostate Cancer

Though still in trials, early results show tests may be more accurate than traditional clinical laboratory tests for detecting prostate cancer

Within weeks of each other, different research teams in the US and UK published findings of their respective efforts to develop a better, more accurate clinical laboratory prostate cancer test. With cancer being a leading cause of death among men—second only to heart disease according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—new diagnostics to identify prostate cancer would be a boon to precision medicine treatments for the deadly disease and could save many lives.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, England, were working to improve the accuracy of the widely-used and accepted prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. By contrast, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Cancer in Los Angeles, pursued a new liquid biopsy approach to identifying prostate cancer that uses nanotechnology.

Thus, these are two different pathways toward the goal of achieving earlier, more accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer, the holy grail of prostate cancer diagnosis.

Dmitry Pshezhetskiy, PhD

“There is currently no single test for prostate cancer, but PSA blood tests are among the most used, alongside physical examinations, MRI scans, and biopsies,” said Dmitry Pshezhetskiy, PhD (above), Professorial Research Fellow at University of East Anglia and one of the authors of the UEA study. “However, PSA blood tests are not routinely used to screen for prostate cancer, as results can be unreliable. Only about a quarter of people who have a prostate biopsy due to an elevated PSA level are found to have prostate cancer. There has therefore been a drive to create a new blood test with greater accuracy.” With the completion of the US and UK studies, clinical laboratories may soon have a new diagnostic test for prostate cancer. (Photo copyright: University of East Anglia.)

East Anglia’s Research into a More Accurate Blood Test

Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) worked with researchers from Imperial College in London, Imperial College NHS Trust, and Oxford BioDynamics to develop a new precision medicine blood test that can detect prostate cancer with greater accuracy than current methods.

The epigenetic blood test they developed, called Prostate Screening EpiSwitch (PSE), can identify cancer-specific chromosome conformations in blood samples. The test works in tandem with the standard prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test to diagnose prostate cancer, according to an Oxford BioDynamics press release.

The researchers evaluated their test in a pilot study involving 147 patients. They found their testing method had a 94% accuracy rate, which is higher than that of PSA testing alone. They discovered their test significantly improved the overall detection of prostate cancer in men who are at risk for the disease. 

“When tested in the context of screening a population at risk, the PSE test yields a rapid and minimally invasive prostate cancer diagnosis with impressive performance,” Dmitry Pshezhetskiy, PhD, Professorial Research Fellow at UEA and one of the authors of the study told Science Daily. “This suggests a real benefit for both diagnostic and screening purposes.”

The UK scientists hope their test can eventually be used in everyday clinical practice as there is a need for a highly accurate method for prostate cancer screening that does not subject patients to unnecessary, costly, invasive procedures. 

The UEA researchers published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cancers, titled, “Circulating Chromosome Conformation Signatures Significantly Enhance PSA Positive Predicting Value and Overall Accuracy for Prostate Cancer Detection.”

Cedars-Sinai’s Research into Nanotechnology Cancer Testing

Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Cancer took a different approach to diagnosing prostate cancer by developing a nanotechnology-based liquid biopsy test that detects the disease even in microscopic amounts.  

Their test isolates and identifies extracellular vesicles (EVs) from blood samples. EVs are microscopic non-reproducing protein and genetic material shed by all cells. Cedars-Sinai’s EV Digital Scoring Assay accurately extracts EVs from blood and analyzes them faster than similar currently available tests.

“This research will revolutionize the liquid biopsy in prostate cancer,” said oncologist Edwin Posadas, MD, Medical Director of the Urologic Oncology Program and co-director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program in Cedars-Sinai Cancer in a press release. “The test is fast, minimally invasive and cost-effective, and opens up a new suite of tools that will help us optimize treatment and quality of life for prostate cancer patients.”

The researchers tested blood samples from 40 patients with prostate cancer. They found that their EV test could distinguish between cancer localized to the prostate and cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

Microscopic cancer deposits, called micrometastases, are not always detectable, even with advanced imaging methods. When these deposits spread outside the prostate area, focused radiation cannot prevent further progression of the disease. Thus, the ability to identify cancer by locale within the body could lead to new precision medicine treatments for the illness.

“[The EV Digital Scoring Assay] would allow many patients to avoid the potential harms of radiation that isn’t targeting their disease, and instead receive systemic therapy that could slow disease progression,” Posadas explained.

The Cedars-Sinai researchers published their findings in Nano Today, titled, “Prostate Cancer Extracellular Vesicle Digital Scoring Assay: A Rapid Noninvasive Approach for Quantification of Disease-relevant mRNAs.”

Other Clinical Laboratory Tests for Prostate Cancer Under Development

According to the American Cancer Society, the number of prostate cancer cases is increasing. One out of eight men will be diagnosed with the illness during his lifetime. Thus, developers have been working on clinical laboratory tests to accurately detect the disease and save lives for some time.

In “University of East Anglia Researchers Develop Non-Invasive Prostate Cancer Urine Test,” Dark Daily reported on a urine test also developed by scientists at the University of East Anglia that clinical laboratories can use to not only accurately diagnose prostate cancer but also determine whether it is an aggressive form of the disease.

And in “UPMC Researchers Develop Artificial Intelligence Algorithm That Detects Prostate Cancer with ‘Near Perfect Accuracy’ in Effort to Improve How Pathologists Diagnose Cancer ,” we outlined how researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) working with Ibex Medical Analytics in Israel had developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm for digital pathology that can accurately diagnose prostate cancer. In the initial study, the algorithm—dubbed the Galen Prostate AI platform—accurately detected prostate cancer with 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity.

More research and clinical trials are needed before the new US and UK prostate cancer testing methods will be ready to be used in clinical settings. But it’s clear that ongoing research may soon produce new clinical laboratory tests and diagnostics for prostate cancer that will steer treatment options and allow for better patient outcomes.  

—JP Schlingman

Related Information:

The New Prostate Cancer Blood Test with 94 Percent Accuracy

Circulating Chromosome Conformation Signatures Significantly Enhance PSA Positive Predicting Value and Overall Accuracy for Prostate Cancer Detection

Invention: A Blood Test to Unlock Prostate Cancer Mysteries

Prostate Cancer Extracellular Vesicle Digital Scoring Assay: A Rapid Noninvasive Approach for Quantification of Disease-relevant mRNAs

Could a Urine Test Detect Pancreatic and Prostate Cancer? Study Shows 99% Success Rate

University of East Anglia Researchers Develop Non-Invasive Prostate Cancer Urine Test

UPMC Researchers Develop Artificial Intelligence Algorithm That Detects Prostate Cancer with ‘Near Perfect Accuracy’ in Effort to Improve How Pathologists Diagnose Cancer

Recent Separate Business Transactions by Fujifilm and GE Healthcare Suggest Bullish Outlook for Faster Adoption of Digital Pathology

Fujifilm acquired Inspirata’s Dynamyx digital pathology technology and business while GE Healthcare announced a partnership with Tribun Health in Europe

Clinical pathology laboratories, especially in the US, have been slow to adopt digital imaging systems. But recent industry deals suggest that the market may soon heat up, at least in the eyes of vendors. These collaborators may hope that, by integrating diagnostic data, the accuracy and productivity of anatomic pathologists will improve while also shortening the time to diagnosis.

In a December press release, Tokyo-based Fujifilm announced it acquired the global digital pathology business of Inspirata, including its Dynamyx digital pathology system. Inspirata is a Tampa-based cancer informatics company.

In the press release, Fujifilm stated that 85% of US healthcare organizations use analog systems for pathology. That compares with 86% in Europe and 90% in Asia, the company stated.

“Acquiring Inspirata’s digital pathology business allows Fujifilm to be an even stronger healthcare partner—bridging a technological gap between pathology, radiology, and oncology to facilitate a more collaborative approach to care delivery across the enterprise,” said Fujifilm CEO and president Teiichi Goto in the press release.

The press release cited data from Signify Research, a healthcare technology marketing data firm that is predicting the global market for digital pathology systems would double from $320 million in 2021 to $640 million by 2025.

Fujifilm previously had a deal with Inspirata to sell the Dynamyx system exclusively in the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, an August press release noted.

Henry Izawa

“A $320 million global industry in 2021 projected to reach $640 million by 2025, the rising number of cancer cases and the demonstrated benefits of digital pathology are fueling significant demand and market growth in the hospital and pharmaceutical industries,” said Henry Izawa (above), president and CEO, Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corporation, in a press release. “These evolving clinical needs fuel Fujifilm’s investment and innovation in the digital revolution, and we look forward to introducing Dynamyx and its host of unique features and benefits to our Synapse customers and prospects as we strive to enable more efficient medical diagnosis and high-quality care.” (Photo copyright: LinkedIn.)

GE Healthcare Partners with Tribun Health

The Fujifilm acquisition followed an October 18 announcement of a collaboration between GE Healthcare and digital pathology company Tribun Health in Europe to provide an interface between the latter’s digital pathology software and GE Healthcare’s Edison Datalogue image-management system.

In announcing their new collaboration, GE Healthcare and Tribun Health said the integration of their systems—Edison Datalogue and the Tribun Health suite—would foster collaboration between pathologists and clinicians by providing a consolidated location for imaging records. This capability is especially important in oncology, they said.

“The oncology care pathway is one of the most complex with multiple steps involving a variety of specialists, complex tools, frequent decisions, and large data sets,” said GE Healthcare CEO of Enterprise Digital Solutions Nalinikanth Gollagunta in a GE press release. “With this digital pathology collaboration, we continue our journey towards simplifying the oncology care pathway with improved data management, the digitization of pathology, and streamlined data access.”

Tribun Health, based in Paris, France, offers a digital pathology platform that incorporates a camera system, artificial intelligence (AI)-based analysis, remote collaboration, and storage management, plus integration with third-party automation apps.

GE Healthcare claims that Edison Datalogue has the largest share of the Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) market. That term refers to image archiving systems that use standard formats and interfaces instead of proprietary formats. They are an alternative to the more widely used Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) used in medical imaging.

The collaboration between the companies “is probably a strategic move to position GE as an integrator of imaging data and digital pathology data in oncology,” said Robert Michel Editor-in-Chief of Dark Daily and its sister publication The Dark Report.

GE’s History with Dynamyx

This is not GE Healthcare’s first foray into digital pathology. In fact, the company had a major hand in launching the very Dynamyx system that Fujifilm recently acquired.

Dynamyx was originally developed by digital pathology technology company Omnyx, LLC, which was a joint venture formed in 2008 between GE Healthcare and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

In “GE Healthcare Sells Omnyx to Inspirata,” The Dark Report interviewed Inspirata CEO Satish Sanan who at that time said the acquisition would allow his company to offer “a fully integrated, end-to-end digital pathology solution” in Canada and Europe. But GE Healthcare chose to end the partnership in 2016, citing regulatory uncertainty and variable global demand. Two years later, GE sold Omnyx to Inspirata.

GE Healthcare’s new collaboration with Tribun Health shows that the company “still recognizes the value of the pathology data in cancer diagnosis and wants to be in a position to manage that digital pathology data,” Michel said.

Fujifilm’s Plans

Fujifilm said it will incorporate Dynamyx into its Synapse Enterprise Imaging suite, which includes VNA, Radiology PACS, and Cardiology PACS. “Future releases of Dynamyx will also create opportunities for Fujifilm to support pharmaceutical and contract research organizations with toxicity testing data management for drug development,” the company stated in the press release.

US-based subsidiary Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corporation will handle future development of the Dynamyx system. In the US, the system is currently cleared for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use with Leica’s Aperio AT2 DX scanner and Philips’ Ultra Fast Scanner.

With its recent moves into digital pathology, Fujifilm will be taking on major competitors including Philips, Danaher, and Roche, MedTech Dive reported.

Stephen Beale

Related Information:

Fujifilm Announces Asset Purchase Agreement with Inspirata, Inc. to Acquire the Company’s Digital Pathology Business

Fujifilm Agrees to Buy Inspirata’s Dynamyx in Challenge to Philips for Digital Pathology Market

GE Healthcare Announces Collaboration to Advance Digital Transformation of Pathology

Leica, Philips Come Out on Top in Digital Pathology Systems Market, KLAS Finds

GE Healthcare Sells Omnyx to Inspirata

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