Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects both motor and non-motor functions, primarily due to the gradual loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Traditional diagnostic methods largely depend on clinical symptom evaluation, which often leads to delays in detection and treatment. However, in recent years, artificial intelligence (AI), particularly machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), have emerged as groundbreaking techniques for the diagnosis and management of PD. This review explores the emergent role of AI-driven techniques in early disease detection, continuous monitoring, and the development of personalized treatment strategies. Advanced AI applications, including medical imaging analysis, speech pattern recognition, gait assessment, and the identification of digital biomarkers, have shown remarkable potential in improving diagnostic accuracy and patient care. Additionally, AI-driven telemedicine solutions enable remote and real-time disease monitoring, addressing challenges related to accessibility and early intervention. Despite these promising advancements, several hurdles remain, such as concerns over data privacy, the interpretability of AI models, and the need for rigorous validation before clinical implementation. With PD cases expected to rise significantly by 2030, further research and interdisciplinary collaboration are crucial to refining AI technologies and ensuring their reliability in medical practice. By bridging the gap between technology and neurology, AI has the potential to revolutionize PD management, paving the way for precision medicine and better patient outcomes.

The construction of brain graphs from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data plays a crucial role in enabling graph machine learning for neuroimaging. However, current practices often rely on rigid pipelines that overlook critical data-centric choices in how brain graphs are constructed. In this work, we adopt a Data-Centric AI perspective and systematically define and benchmark a data-centric design space for brain graph construction, constrasting with primarily model-centric prior work. We organize this design space into three stages: temporal signal processing, topology extraction, and graph featurization. Our contributions lie less in novel components and more in evaluating how combinations of existing and modified techniques influence downstream performance. Specifically, we study high-amplitude BOLD signal filtering, sparsification and unification strategies for connectivity, alternative correlation metrics, and multi-view node and edge features, such as incorporating lagged dynamics. Experiments on the HCP1200 and ABIDE datasets show that thoughtful data-centric configurations consistently improve classification accuracy over standard pipelines. These findings highlight the critical role of upstream data decisions and underscore the importance of systematically exploring the data-centric design space for graph-based neuroimaging. Our code is available at https://github.com/GeQinwen/DataCentricBrainGraphs.

Chest X-ray imaging is crucial for diagnosing pulmonary and cardiac diseases, yet its interpretation demands extensive clinical experience and suffers from inter-observer variability. While deep learning models offer high diagnostic accuracy, their black-box nature hinders clinical adoption in high-stakes medical settings. To address this, we propose X-Ray-CoT (Chest X-Ray Chain-of-Thought), a novel framework leveraging Vision-Language Large Models (LVLMs) for intelligent chest X-ray diagnosis and interpretable report generation. X-Ray-CoT simulates human radiologists' "chain-of-thought" by first extracting multi-modal features and visual concepts, then employing an LLM-based component with a structured Chain-of-Thought prompting strategy to reason and produce detailed natural language diagnostic reports. Evaluated on the CORDA dataset, X-Ray-CoT achieves competitive quantitative performance, with a Balanced Accuracy of 80.52% and F1 score of 78.65% for disease diagnosis, slightly surpassing existing black-box models. Crucially, it uniquely generates high-quality, explainable reports, as validated by preliminary human evaluations. Our ablation studies confirm the integral role of each proposed component, highlighting the necessity of multi-modal fusion and CoT reasoning for robust and transparent medical AI. This work represents a significant step towards trustworthy and clinically actionable AI systems in medical imaging.

Foundation models in medical imaging have shown promising label efficiency, achieving high downstream performance with only a fraction of annotated data. Here, we evaluate this in prostate multiparametric MRI using ProFound, a domain-specific vision foundation model pretrained on large-scale prostate MRI datasets. We investigate how variable image quality affects label-efficient finetuning by measuring the generalisability of finetuned models. Experiments systematically vary high-/low-quality image ratios in finetuning and evaluation sets. Our findings indicate that image quality distribution and its finetune-and-test mismatch significantly affect model performance. In particular: a) Varying the ratio of high- to low-quality images between finetuning and test sets leads to notable differences in downstream performance; and b) The presence of sufficient high-quality images in the finetuning set is critical for maintaining strong performance, whilst the importance of matched finetuning and testing distribution varies between different downstream tasks, such as automated radiology reporting and prostate cancer detection.When quality ratios are consistent, finetuning needs far less labeled data than training from scratch, but label efficiency depends on image quality distribution. Without enough high-quality finetuning data, pretrained models may fail to outperform those trained without pretraining. This highlights the importance of assessing and aligning quality distributions between finetuning and deployment, and the need for quality standards in finetuning data for specific downstream tasks. Using ProFound, we show the value of quantifying image quality in both finetuning and deployment to fully realise the data and compute efficiency benefits of foundation models.

Accurate prognostication and personalized treatment selection remain major challenges in kidney cancer. This consensus initiative aimed to provide actionable expert guidance on the development and clinical integration of prognostic and predictive biomarkers and risk stratification tools to improve patient care and guide future research. A modified Delphi method was employed to develop consensus statements among a multidisciplinary panel of experts in urologic oncology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, molecular biology, radiology, outcomes research, biostatistics, industry, and patient advocacy. Over 3 rounds, including an in-person meeting 20 initial statements were evaluated, refined, and voted on. Consensus was defined a priori as a median Likert score ≥8. Nineteen final consensus statements were endorsed. These span key domains including biomarker prioritization (favoring prognostic biomarkers), rigorous methodology for subgroup and predictive analyses, the development of multi-institutional prospective registries, incorporation of biomarkers in trial design, and improvements in data/biospecimen access. The panel also identified high-priority biomarker types (e.g., AI-based image analysis, ctDNA) for future research. This is the first consensus statement specifically focused on biomarker and risk model development for kidney cancer using a structured Delphi process. The recommendations emphasize the need for rigorous methodology, collaborative infrastructure, prospective data collection, and focus on clinically translatable biomarkers. The resulting framework is intended to guide researchers, cooperative groups, and stakeholders in advancing personalized care for patients with kidney cancer.

Accurate prognostic prediction is crucial for patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) to guide personalized treatment strategies. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive prognostic model leveraging clinical factors alongside radiomics and deep learning (DL) based on CT imaging to predict recurrence-free survival (RFS) in LSCC patients. We retrospectively enrolled 349 patients with LSCC from Center 1 (training set: n = 189; internal testing set: n = 82) and Center 2 (external testing set: n = 78). A combined model was developed using Cox regression analysis to predict RFS in LSCC patients by integrating independent clinical risk factors, radiomics score (RS), and deep learning score (DLS). Meanwhile, separate clinical, radiomics, and DL models were also constructed for comparison. Furthermore, the combined model was represented visually through a nomogram to provide personalized estimation of RFS, with its risk stratification capability evaluated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. The combined model achieved a higher C-index than did the clinical model, radiomics model, and DL model in the internal testing (0.810 vs. 0.634, 0.679, and 0.727, respectively) and external testing sets (0.742 vs. 0.602, 0.617, and 0.729, respectively). Additionally, following risk stratification via nomogram, patients in the low-risk group showed significantly higher survival probabilities compared to those in the high-risk group in the internal testing set [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.157, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.063-0.392, p < 0.001] and external testing set (HR = 0.312, 95% CI: 0.137-0.711, p = 0.003). The proposed combined model demonstrated a reliable and accurate ability to predict RFS in patients with LSCC, potentially assisting in risk stratification.

Predicting the prognosis of bladder cancer remains challenging despite standard treatments. We developed an interpretable bladder cancer deep learning (BCDL) model using preoperative CT scans to predict overall survival. The model was trained on a cohort (n = 765) and validated in three independent cohorts (n = 438; n = 181; n = 72). The BCDL model outperformed other models in survival risk prediction, with the SHapley Additive exPlanation method identifying pixel-level features contributing to predictions. Patients were stratified into high- and low-risk groups using deep learning score cutoff. Adjuvant therapy significantly improved overall survival in high-risk patients (p = 0.028) and women in the low-risk group (p = 0.046). RNA sequencing analysis revealed differential gene expression and pathway enrichment between risk groups, with high-risk patients exhibiting an immunosuppressive microenvironment and altered microbial composition. Our BCDL model accurately predicts survival risk and supports personalized treatment strategies for improved clinical decision-making.

We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of deep learning (DL)-based radiomics models for the noninvasive prediction of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation and 1p/19q co-deletion status in glioma patients using MRI sequences, and to identify methodological factors influencing accuracy and generalizability. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched major databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) up to March 2025, screening studies that utilized DL to predict IDH and 1p/19q co-deletion status from MRI data. We assessed study quality and risk of bias using the Radiomics Quality Score and the QUADAS-2 tool. Our meta-analysis employed a bivariate model to compute pooled sensitivity and specificity, and meta-regression to assess interstudy heterogeneity. Among the 1517 unique publications, 104 were included in the qualitative synthesis, and 72 underwent meta-analysis. Pooled estimates for IDH prediction in test cohorts yielded a sensitivity of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.77-0.83) and specificity of 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81-0.87). For 1p/19q co-deletion, sensitivity was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.65-0.82) and specificity was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.75-0.88). Meta-regression identified the tumor segmentation method and the extent of DL integration into the radiomics pipeline as significant contributors to interstudy variability. Although DL models demonstrate strong potential for noninvasive molecular classification of gliomas, clinical translation requires several critical steps: harmonization of multi-center MRI data using techniques such as histogram matching and DL-based style transfer; adoption of standardized and automated segmentation protocols; extensive multi-center external validation; and prospective clinical validation. Question Can DL based radiomics using routine MRI noninvasively predict IDH mutation and 1p/19q co-deletion status in gliomas, and what factors affect diagnostic accuracy? Findings Meta-analysis showed 80% sensitivity and 85% specificity for predicting IDH mutation, and 75% sensitivity and 82% specificity for 1p/19q co-deletion status. Clinical relevance MRI-based DL models demonstrate clinically useful accuracy for noninvasive glioma molecular classification, but data harmonization, standardized automated segmentation, and rigorous multi-center external validation are essential for clinical adoption.

Foundation models in medical imaging have shown promising label efficiency, achieving high performance on downstream tasks using only a fraction of the annotated data otherwise required. In this study, we evaluate this potential in the context of prostate multiparametric MRI using ProFound, a recently developed domain-specific vision foundation model pretrained on large-scale prostate MRI datasets. We investigate the impact of variable image quality on the label-efficient finetuning, by quantifying the generalisability of the finetuned models. We conduct a comprehensive set of experiments by systematically varying the ratios of high- and low-quality images in the finetuning and evaluation sets. Our findings indicate that image quality distribution and its finetune-and-test mismatch significantly affect model performance. In particular: a) Varying the ratio of high- to low-quality images between finetuning and test sets leads to notable differences in downstream performance; and b) The presence of sufficient high-quality images in the finetuning set is critical for maintaining strong performance, whilst the importance of matched finetuning and testing distribution varies between different downstream tasks, such as automated radiology reporting and prostate cancer detection. Importantly, experimental results also show that, although finetuning requires significantly less labeled data compared to training from scratch when the quality ratio is consistent, this label efficiency is not independent of the image quality distribution. For example, we show cases that, without sufficient high-quality images in finetuning, finetuned models may fail to outperform those without pretraining.

Modern deep neural networks are highly over-parameterized, necessitating the use of data augmentation techniques to prevent overfitting and enhance generalization. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are popular for synthesizing visually realistic images. However, these synthetic images often lack diversity and may have ambiguous class labels. Recent data mixing strategies address some of these issues by mixing image labels based on salient regions. Since the main diagnostic information is not always contained within the salient regions, we aim to address the resulting label mismatches in medical image classifications. We propose a variety-guided data mixing framework (VariMix), which exploits an absolute difference map (ADM) to address the label mismatch problems of mixed medical images. VariMix generates ADM using the image-to-image (I2I) GAN across multiple classes and allows for bidirectional mixing operations between the training samples. The proposed VariMix achieves the highest accuracy of 99.30% and 94.60% with a SwinT V2 classifier on a Chest X-ray (CXR) dataset and a Retinal dataset, respectively. It also achieves the highest accuracy of 87.73%, 99.28%, 95.13%, and 95.81% with a ConvNeXt classifier on a Breast Ultrasound (US) dataset, a CXR dataset, a Retinal dataset, and a Maternal-Fetal US dataset, respectively. Furthermore, the medical expert evaluation on generated images shows the great potential of our proposed I2I GAN in improving the accuracy of medical image classifications. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of VariMix compared with the existing GAN- and Mixup-based methods on four public datasets using Swin Transformer V2 and ConvNeXt architectures. Furthermore, by projecting the source image to the hyperplanes of the classifiers, the proposed I2I GAN can generate hyperplane difference maps between the source image and the hyperplane image, demonstrating its ability to interpret medical image classifications. The source code is provided in https://github.com/yXiangXiong/VariMix.