Artificial intelligence in digital pathology diagnosis and analysis: technologies,challenges, and future prospects

Xiu-Ming Zhang; Tian-Hong Gao; Qiu-Yu Cai; Jia-Bin Xia; Yu-Ning Sun; Jian Yang; Wei-Han Li; Sheng-Xu-Ming Zhang; Heng-Rui Lou; Xiao-Tian Yu; Kai-Wen Hu; Jing-Wen Ye; Jin-Xing Zhang; Jie Lei; Le-Chao Cheng; Lin-Jie Xu; Qing Chen; He-Xiang Wang; Mei-Fu Gan; Cheng Lu; Nan Pu; Ming-Li Song; Xin Chen; Wen-Jie Liang; Han Lv; Chao-Qing Xu; Zai-Yi Liu; Jing Zhang; Kai Yan; Zun-Lei Feng

doi:10.1186/s40779-025-00680-6

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Artificial intelligence in digital pathology diagnosis and analysis: technologies,challenges, and future prospects

REVIEW | Updated：2026-01-29

- Artificial intelligence in digital pathology diagnosis and analysis: technologies,challenges, and future prospects
- “Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing pathology diagnostics, but its applications have not been systematically evaluated. This review presents a technical taxonomy of AI algorithms and foundation models, benchmarking their performance across diagnostic tasks and identifying challenges in clinical translation. It proposes a roadmap for advancing AI applications in precision oncology and pathological research, aiming to integrate robust, unified, scalable AI solutions into diagnostic workflows.”
- Military Medical Research Vol. 12, (2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310000, China
  2.School of Software Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, China
  3.State Key Laboratory of Blockchain and Data Security, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, China
  4.Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119077, Singapore
  5.Department of Interventional Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, China
  6.College of Computer Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310000, China
  7.School of Computer and Information, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230000, China
  8.Department of Radiology,the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao 266000, Shandong, China
  9.Department of Pathology, Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang, China
  10.Department of Radiology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510000, China
  11.The Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
  12.School of Computer and Computing Science, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou 310000, China
  13.Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Guangzhou First People’s Hospital, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510000, China
  14.Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310000, China
  15.Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100000, China
  16.Department of Neonatology, Children Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China
- Author bio：
  
  * Chao-Qing Xu xucq@hzcu.edu.cn
  Zai-Yi Liu liuzaiyi@gdph.org.cn
  Jing Zhang jzhang1989@zju.edu.cn
  Kai Yan fhyankai@gmail.com
  Zun-Lei Feng zunleifeng@zju.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1186/s40779-025-00680-6
  CLC：
- Received：11 May 2025，
  
  Accepted：26 November 2025，
  
  Online First：04 January 2026，
  
  Published：2025
- Accepted：
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Xiu-Ming Zhang, Tian-Hong Gao, Qiu-Yu Cai, et al. Artificial intelligence in digital pathology diagnosis and analysis: technologies,challenges, and future prospects[J/OL]. Military Medical Research, 2025, 12.
DOI：

Xiu-Ming Zhang, Tian-Hong Gao, Qiu-Yu Cai, et al. Artificial intelligence in digital pathology diagnosis and analysis: technologies,challenges, and future prospects[J/OL]. Military Medical Research, 2025, 12. DOI： 10.1186/s40779-025-00680-6.

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Artificial intelligence in digital pathology diagnosis and analysis: technologies,challenges, and future prospects

DOI：10.1186/s40779-025-00680-6