Synergistically Learning Class-specific Tokens for Multi-class Whole Slide Image Classification

Pengzhong Sun, Wei Wang, Xiangyu Li, Suyu Dong, Shuo Li, Kuanquan Wang, Gongning Luo

Abstract: The application of transformer architecture in analyzing whole slide images (WSIs) has become increasingly popular due to its remarkable ability to learn complex associations. Nevertheless, a significant drawback emerges in the multiclass analysis of WSIs. The majority of the transformer-based methods available currently rely primarily on a single, class-agnostic token. This approach might not ideally capture the subtleties of class-discriminative information. To address this challenge, we present an innovative approach tailored for multi-class WSI analysis that harnesses the power of class-specific tokens. Central to our method is a novel attention mechanism designed to foster a synergistic learning relationship between patch and class tokens, enhancing the granularity of information captured and ensuring a more comprehensive representation of the WSI. Complementing this, we introduce a dynamic class-centric training strategy designed to optimize token representation learning, ensuring each token is informatively aligned with its corresponding class. Through extensive experimentation on three challenging multi-class WSI analysis datasets, our method consistently demonstrates superior performance, underscoring its potential as a robust solution for multi-class WSI analysis tasks.