arXiv:2608.02803cs.CVcs.AI2026-08

让病理模型的注意力机制说出人话,解释它为何判断病人预后。

SAGE: Semantic Explainability of Attention-Based Survival Models in Computational Pathology

论文配图:SAGE: Semantic Explainability of Attention-Based Survival Models in Computational Pathology
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用语言模型分析注意力图,把局部聚焦转为可理解的组织特征
  • 在7个癌症队列中复现已知危险因素,发现肾癌特有良性血管生成信号
  • 不依赖模型内部结构,适合各类病理预测模型解释

基于注意力的多实例学习(ABMIL)是计算病理学中滑动级别预测的主流方法,但其注意力图仅提供局部解释:显示模型关注位置,却无法说明是哪些组织学特征驱动预测结果或模型在患者队列中的整体行为。我们提出语义注意力全局解释框架(SAGE),这是一个后处理框架,能从冻结的ABMIL模型中提取全局、语言锚定的解释。SAGE利用病理视觉-语言模型,将图像块与25个组织学概念词典进行评分,根据模型学习到的注意力对得分进行聚合,并量化每个概念在队列层面与预后风险的关系。在七个TCGA癌症队列和三个基础模型上应用该方法,SAGE成功复现了已知的不良预后特征(如坏死),并揭示了癌症特异性生物学特征,例如肾细胞癌中与已知分子亚型一致的有利血管生成信号。消融实验表明这些关联依赖于模型学习到的注意力而非概念出现频率,且概念词典捕捉了基础模型特征中的大部分预后信息。通过语义锚定的解释,SAGE提供了一种可扩展、模型无关的方法,帮助病理科医生在队列层面理解模型行为,并具备发现生物标志物的潜力。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Attention-based multiple instance learning (ABMIL) is the predominant approach for slide-level prediction in computational pathology, yet its attention maps provide only local explanations: they indicate where a model focuses but not which histological features drive its predictions or how the model behaves across a patient cohort. We present Semantic Attention Global Explanations (SAGE), a post-hoc framework that extracts global, language-grounded explanations from a frozen ABMIL model. Using a pathology vision-language model, SAGE scores image patches against a dictionary of 25 histological concepts, aggregates these scores according to the model's learned attention, and quantifies how each concept relates to prediction risk across a cohort. Applied to survival prediction using seven TCGA cancer cohorts and three foundation models, SAGE recovered established prognostic features, such as the adverse association of necrosis, while revealing cancer-specific biology, including a favorable angiogenic signature in renal cell carcinoma consistent with known molecular subtypes. Ablation studies demonstrated that these associations depend on the model's learned attention rather than concept prevalence alone, and that the concept dictionary captures much of the prognostic information encoded by the foundation model features. Through semantically-grounded explanations, SAGE provides a scalable, model-agnostic framework for understanding what ABMIL survival models learn, enabling pathologists to interpret model behavior at the cohort level and offering the potential for biomarker identification.

病理分析注意力解释生存预测视觉语言

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。