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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13328 |
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| _version_ | 1866910130135629824 |
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| author | Shao, Jiahao Khan, Anam Nawaz Brett, Christopher Berg, Tom Li, Xueping Yao, Bing |
| author_facet | Shao, Jiahao Khan, Anam Nawaz Brett, Christopher Berg, Tom Li, Xueping Yao, Bing |
| contents | Pathology reports serve as the definitive record for breast cancer staging, yet their unstructured format impedes large-scale data curation. While Large Language Models (LLMs) offer semantic reasoning, their deployment is often limited by high computational costs and hallucination risks. This study introduces a parameter-efficient, multi-task framework for automating the extraction of Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) staging, histologic grade, and biomarkers. We fine-tune a Llama-3-8B-Instruct encoder using Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) on a curated, expert-verified dataset of 10,677 reports. Unlike generative approaches, our architecture utilizes parallel classification heads to enforce consistent schema adherence. Experimental results demonstrate that the model achieves a Macro F1 score of 0.976, successfully resolving complex contextual ambiguities and heterogeneous reporting formats that challenge traditional extraction methods including rule-based natural language processing (NLP) pipelines, zero-shot LLMs, and single-task LLM baselines. The proposed adapter-efficient, multi-task architecture enables reliable, scalable pathology-derived cancer staging and biomarker profiling, with the potential to enhance clinical decision support and accelerate data-driven oncology research. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_13328 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Multi-Task LLM with LoRA Fine-Tuning for Automated Cancer Staging and Biomarker Extraction Shao, Jiahao Khan, Anam Nawaz Brett, Christopher Berg, Tom Li, Xueping Yao, Bing Machine Learning Pathology reports serve as the definitive record for breast cancer staging, yet their unstructured format impedes large-scale data curation. While Large Language Models (LLMs) offer semantic reasoning, their deployment is often limited by high computational costs and hallucination risks. This study introduces a parameter-efficient, multi-task framework for automating the extraction of Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) staging, histologic grade, and biomarkers. We fine-tune a Llama-3-8B-Instruct encoder using Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) on a curated, expert-verified dataset of 10,677 reports. Unlike generative approaches, our architecture utilizes parallel classification heads to enforce consistent schema adherence. Experimental results demonstrate that the model achieves a Macro F1 score of 0.976, successfully resolving complex contextual ambiguities and heterogeneous reporting formats that challenge traditional extraction methods including rule-based natural language processing (NLP) pipelines, zero-shot LLMs, and single-task LLM baselines. The proposed adapter-efficient, multi-task architecture enables reliable, scalable pathology-derived cancer staging and biomarker profiling, with the potential to enhance clinical decision support and accelerate data-driven oncology research. |
| title | Multi-Task LLM with LoRA Fine-Tuning for Automated Cancer Staging and Biomarker Extraction |
| topic | Machine Learning |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13328 |