Vuno said on Friday that its AI-using pathology research platform, VUNO Med-PathLab, confirmed a biomarker highly associated with the survival rate of liver cancer patients.

The company plans to release the study results at a poster session during the virtual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, scheduled to be held from June 4-8.

The latest research is Vuno’s second joint study with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after the first one announced at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting last year.

VUNO Med-PathLab quantifies pathology slides of liver cancer
VUNO Med-PathLab quantifies pathology slides of liver cancer

Vuno’s research team analyzed tissue slides of 351 liver cancer patients using VUNO Med-PathLab. The platform divides the tissues into malignant cells, lymphocytes, mucus, and normal tissues. It analyzes pathological images by detecting and classifying cells.

The results showed that cell density per lymphocyte segmented area (CDpLA) was the primary variable predicting the survival rate of liver cancer patients.

The higher the CDpLA, the higher the median overall survival of liver cancer patients, the study found. Also, a higher CDpLA indicated a higher expression of the immune activation-related gene and a lower expression of the immunosuppressive gene, the company said.

The results demonstrated that CDpLA could be a meaningful biomarker to predict the prognosis of liver cancer patients, the company added.

Jung Kyu-hwan, chief technology officer of Vuno, said the company has quantified digital pathology images to the tissue and cell level with deep learning technology and found a significant biomarker to predict the prognosis of liver cancer.

“We will integrate our technology to develop a precision medicine solution that predicts an individual patient’s prognosis and treatment response,” he said.

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