CRISP -- Clustering-Based Redundancy-Reduced Instance Sampling for Pathology Case Representation and Retrieval

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Afzal, Zahra Rahimi, Uegami, Wataru, Alfasly, Saghir, Yasir, Saba, Boughey, Judy C., Goetz, Matthew P., Kalari, Krishna R., Tizhoosh, H. R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Afzal, Zahra Rahimi
Uegami, Wataru
Alfasly, Saghir
Yasir, Saba
Boughey, Judy C.
Goetz, Matthew P.
Kalari, Krishna R.
Tizhoosh, H. R.
author_facet Afzal, Zahra Rahimi
Uegami, Wataru
Alfasly, Saghir
Yasir, Saba
Boughey, Judy C.
Goetz, Matthew P.
Kalari, Krishna R.
Tizhoosh, H. R.
contents Digital pathology archives increasingly contain multiple whole-slide images (WSIs) per case, capturing spatially distinct tumour regions and reflecting intrinsic morphological heterogeneity. However, most existing approaches rely on a single pathologist-selected slide, thereby discarding potentially informative evidence distributed across the remaining WSIs. To date, no autonomous framework has been proposed for comprehensive multi-WSI case processing. Here, we present an unsupervised framework for case-level analysis that integrates information from all available slides within a case. Rather than relying on a single designated slide, the proposed approach constructs case-level representations by selectively distilling informative patches across WSIs. We introduce Clustering-Based Redundancy-Reduced Instance Sampling for Pathology (CRISP), a two-stage framework that first reduces redundancy within individual WSIs and subsequently applies clustering-based sampling to select a compact yet representative set of patches for the entire case. The resulting patch set captures case-level heterogeneity while avoiding exhaustive processing of gigapixel images, and directly serves as a retrieval index. Using two Mayo Clinic breast cancer datasets for diagnosis and treatment planning, we demonstrate that CRISP consistently matches or surpasses the current standard practice of combined model and pathologist slide selection for patient/case search and retrieval. By automating case-level processing and eliminating subjective WSI selection, CRISP potentially enables the exploitation of clinically relevant information distributed across multiple WSIs that is currently overlooked.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_24253
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle CRISP -- Clustering-Based Redundancy-Reduced Instance Sampling for Pathology Case Representation and Retrieval
Afzal, Zahra Rahimi
Uegami, Wataru
Alfasly, Saghir
Yasir, Saba
Boughey, Judy C.
Goetz, Matthew P.
Kalari, Krishna R.
Tizhoosh, H. R.
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Information Retrieval
Digital pathology archives increasingly contain multiple whole-slide images (WSIs) per case, capturing spatially distinct tumour regions and reflecting intrinsic morphological heterogeneity. However, most existing approaches rely on a single pathologist-selected slide, thereby discarding potentially informative evidence distributed across the remaining WSIs. To date, no autonomous framework has been proposed for comprehensive multi-WSI case processing. Here, we present an unsupervised framework for case-level analysis that integrates information from all available slides within a case. Rather than relying on a single designated slide, the proposed approach constructs case-level representations by selectively distilling informative patches across WSIs. We introduce Clustering-Based Redundancy-Reduced Instance Sampling for Pathology (CRISP), a two-stage framework that first reduces redundancy within individual WSIs and subsequently applies clustering-based sampling to select a compact yet representative set of patches for the entire case. The resulting patch set captures case-level heterogeneity while avoiding exhaustive processing of gigapixel images, and directly serves as a retrieval index. Using two Mayo Clinic breast cancer datasets for diagnosis and treatment planning, we demonstrate that CRISP consistently matches or surpasses the current standard practice of combined model and pathologist slide selection for patient/case search and retrieval. By automating case-level processing and eliminating subjective WSI selection, CRISP potentially enables the exploitation of clinically relevant information distributed across multiple WSIs that is currently overlooked.
title CRISP -- Clustering-Based Redundancy-Reduced Instance Sampling for Pathology Case Representation and Retrieval
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24253