MiCo: Multiple Instance Learning with Context-Aware Clustering for Whole Slide Image Analysis

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Li, Junjian, Liu, Jin, Kuang, Hulin, Yue, Hailin, He, Mengshen, Wang, Jianxin
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866918282225778688
author Li, Junjian
Liu, Jin
Kuang, Hulin
Yue, Hailin
He, Mengshen
Wang, Jianxin
author_facet Li, Junjian
Liu, Jin
Kuang, Hulin
Yue, Hailin
He, Mengshen
Wang, Jianxin
contents Multiple instance learning (MIL) has shown significant promise in histopathology whole slide image (WSI) analysis for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, the inherent spatial heterogeneity of WSIs presents critical challenges, as morphologically similar tissue types are often dispersed across distant anatomical regions. Conventional MIL methods struggle to model these scattered tissue distributions and capture cross-regional spatial interactions effectively. To address these limitations, we propose a novel Multiple instance learning framework with Context-Aware Clustering (MiCo), designed to enhance cross-regional intra-tissue correlations and strengthen inter-tissue semantic associations in WSIs. MiCo begins by clustering instances to distill discriminative morphological patterns, with cluster centroids serving as semantic anchors. To enhance cross-regional intra-tissue correlations, MiCo employs a Cluster Route module, which dynamically links instances of the same tissue type across distant regions via feature similarity. These semantic anchors act as contextual hubs, propagating semantic relationships to refine instance-level representations. To eliminate semantic fragmentation and strengthen inter-tissue semantic associations, MiCo integrates a Cluster Reducer module, which consolidates redundant anchors while enhancing information exchange between distinct semantic groups. Extensive experiments on two challenging tasks across nine large-scale public cancer datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of MiCo, showcasing its superiority over state-of-the-art methods. The code is available at https://github.com/junjianli106/MiCo.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_18028
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MiCo: Multiple Instance Learning with Context-Aware Clustering for Whole Slide Image Analysis
Li, Junjian
Liu, Jin
Kuang, Hulin
Yue, Hailin
He, Mengshen
Wang, Jianxin
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Multiple instance learning (MIL) has shown significant promise in histopathology whole slide image (WSI) analysis for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, the inherent spatial heterogeneity of WSIs presents critical challenges, as morphologically similar tissue types are often dispersed across distant anatomical regions. Conventional MIL methods struggle to model these scattered tissue distributions and capture cross-regional spatial interactions effectively. To address these limitations, we propose a novel Multiple instance learning framework with Context-Aware Clustering (MiCo), designed to enhance cross-regional intra-tissue correlations and strengthen inter-tissue semantic associations in WSIs. MiCo begins by clustering instances to distill discriminative morphological patterns, with cluster centroids serving as semantic anchors. To enhance cross-regional intra-tissue correlations, MiCo employs a Cluster Route module, which dynamically links instances of the same tissue type across distant regions via feature similarity. These semantic anchors act as contextual hubs, propagating semantic relationships to refine instance-level representations. To eliminate semantic fragmentation and strengthen inter-tissue semantic associations, MiCo integrates a Cluster Reducer module, which consolidates redundant anchors while enhancing information exchange between distinct semantic groups. Extensive experiments on two challenging tasks across nine large-scale public cancer datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of MiCo, showcasing its superiority over state-of-the-art methods. The code is available at https://github.com/junjianli106/MiCo.
title MiCo: Multiple Instance Learning with Context-Aware Clustering for Whole Slide Image Analysis
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.18028