用测试时自适应合并模型,实现无需存储历史切片的持续病理图像分类。
Continual Model Merging with Test-Time Adaptation for Whole-Slide Image Analysis

- 通过测试时调整合并参数,融合独立微调模型以应对分布偏移。
- 在6个TCGA癌症亚型数据集上,保持对旧任务的识别能力且不依赖历史数据。
- 适合需要长期更新但无法保存原始病理切片的临床计算病理场景。
模型合并为持续学习提供了一种实用替代方案,通过整合独立微调的模型而不需保留先前训练数据。近期最先进的模型合并方法采用测试时自适应(TTA-guided merging)来应对分布偏移,利用未标注目标数据调整合并相关变量。然而,这些方法主要在多任务或单目标设置下研究,其在序列式持续学习中的表现尚不充分。本文构建了一个基准测试,将此类方法应用于无重放的持续全切片图像分类,并与传统持续学习方法进行对比。在六个TCGA癌症亚型队列上的实验涵盖CLASS-IL和TASK-IL场景、域内与域外评估及不同任务顺序。结果表明,测试时自适应合并可实现强任务特定性能并提升对已学知识的保留,且无需存储历史WSIs。然而,性能仍对任务顺序以及当前分布自适应与累积知识间的交互敏感。该基准确认了测试时自适应模型合并是持续计算病理的有前景方向,并推动未来方法在应对领域偏移与显式保留历史知识间取得平衡。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Model merging offers a practical alternative to conventional continual learning by integrating independently fine-tuned models without retaining previous training data. Recent state-of-the-art model merging methods employ test-time adaptation (TTA-guided merging) to address distribution shifts by adjusting merging-related variables using unlabeled target data. However, these methods have primarily been studied in multi-task or single-target settings, and their behavior under sequential continual learning remains insufficiently understood. We present a benchmark study that maps this family of methods to rehearsal-free continual Whole Slide Image classification and evaluates them against traditional continual-learning approaches. Experiments on six TCGA cancer-subtyping cohorts cover CLASS-IL and TASK-IL scenarios, in-domain and out-of-domain evaluation, and different task orders. The results show that adapting model merging at test time can provide strong task-specific performance and improve retention of previously acquired knowledge without storing historical WSIs. Nevertheless, performance remains sensitive to task order and to the interaction between adaptation on the current distribution and accumulated knowledge. This benchmark identifies model merging with test-time adaptation as a promising direction for continual computational pathology and motivates future methods that balance adaptation to domain shift with explicit preservation of historical knowledge.
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