Human Error in Molecular Testing: Inaccuracy in Estimation of Tumor Cell Percentage and How Ai can Resolve the Issue.
The National Library of Medicine published an Abstract evaluating pathologists’ tumor cell percentage estimation in order to determine the reliability of the process that is the cornerstone of Molecular Pathology and Cancer Research. The study followed nine pathologists, all independently estimating tumor cell percentages along the industry standard of manual counting. The study found discrepancies in the inconsistency of results across the pathologists’ work.
This raises a number of concerns. Firstly, the results of these estimations are inaccurate, which could affect testing results, as well as question the overall reliability of the process. It also makes one wonder what potential downstream issues may arise from possible false negative or false positive results.
With concerns such as these, and the reliability of an industry-embedded process coming into question, it’s appropriate to rethink long-held standards and reassess for efficiency. Innovation and thinking outside the box are sometimes the one-two punch you need.
At TriMetis, re-evaluating this process has been a major goal. We’ve focused on reworking the approach to tumor assessment, as well as biospecimen procurement, and Laboratory flow of operations. Particularly with tumor cell percentage estimation, a process that we’ve streamlined with the introduction of TCAP (Trimetis Computer-Assisted Pathology), developed with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, to remove manual methods, free up pathologist’s time to focus on higher-level tasks, and leave the tedious work to a computer.
We’ve employed TCAP Ai in our ARCH Marketplace, an online exchange bringing buyers and suppliers from around the world together to make biospecimen procurement easier, with the ability to not only see the specimen before purchase, but also be able to assess its viability with exact counts and measurements of tumor cells, nuclei, and necrosis. We've also employed TCAP Ai in our ARCH LabFlow system, a laboratory platform that introduces Ai-powered automation tools to streamline your lab's workflow, coming soon.
If you have questions, contact us to request a demo or a meeting with our team to learn more!
To read the National Library of Medicine's Abstract in full head to PubMed.gov.
Check out the videos below to learn more about the benefits of TCAP and the ARCH Marketplace!
