The uropathologist of the future: getting ready with intelligence for the prostate cancer tsunami.

Abstract

According to the recently published paper by the Lancet Commission on prostate cancer (PCa) ¹, the projections of new cases of PCa will rise from 1.4 million in 2020 to 2.9 million by 2040. Such a rise cannot be prevented by public health interventions and lifestyle changes. Late diagnosis of PCa is "widespread worldwide but especially in low-income and middle-income countries" ¹. The best way to cope with the harm due to the increase in case numbers is to develop systems for earlier diagnosis. Early diagnosis systems will have to integrate the growing power of artificial intelligence (AI), including digital pathology (DP) diagnostics, to aid the interpretation of prostate tissue specimens ¹. This contribution aims to point out how DP and AI can help pathologists for the prostate cancer "tsunami" about to come.