Predicting response to neoadjuvant therapy using artificial intelligence on digitized histopathology slides: a...

Neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) is an important treatment strategy in surgical oncology, but not all patients benefit equally from it. This systematic review is the first to evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) models predicting NAT response from hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained biopsies slides of solid tumors. A systematic search across five databases was performed following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2). Out of 235 studies, 25 met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed regarding their AI methodologies, data modalities, and type of NAT. Most studies reported area under the curve (AUC) ranging from 0.70 to 0.90, and approximately 40% included external validation cohorts. In conclusion, AI models show promise in predicting NAT response from pathological slides, but future work should emphasize standardized data acquisition, patient-level validation, data transparency, and code sharing.