Prompt-Guided Adaptive Model Transformation for Whole Slide Image Classification

Abstract: Multiple instance learning (MIL) has emerged as a popular method for classifying histopathology whole slide images (WSIs). Existing approaches typically rely on frozen pre-trained models to extract instance features, neglecting the substantial domain shift between pre-training natural and histopathological images. To address this issue, we propose PAMT, a novel Prompt-guided Adaptive Model Transformation framework that enhances MIL classification performance by seamlessly adapting pre-trained models to the specific characteristics of histopathology data. To capture the intricate histopathology distribution, we introduce Representative Patch Sampling (RPS) and Prototypical Visual Prompt (PVP) to reform the input data, building a compact while informative representation. Furthermore, to narrow the domain gap, we introduce Adaptive Model Transformation (AMT) that integrates adapter blocks within the feature extraction pipeline, enabling the pre-trained models to learn domain-specific features. We rigorously evaluate our approach on two publicly available datasets, Camelyon16 and TCGA-NSCLC, showcasing substantial improvements across various MIL models. Our findings affirm the potential of PAMT to set a new benchmark in WSI classification, underscoring the value of a targeted reprogramming approach.