Today is World Breast Cancer Research Day.

The 18th day of the 8th month was chosen for a reason: the date symbolizes the statistics showing that 1 in 8 women and 1 in 833 men will face this diagnosis in their lifetime.

According to WHO, breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women in the majority of countries worldwide, with about 80% of cases occurring in patients with no specific risk factors other than sex and age. The choice of therapy and treatment effectiveness depend heavily on how quickly and accurately a tumor's molecular profile can be determined.

The Skoltech AI Center team, led by Svetlana Illarionova, is developing virtual staining algorithms. Using generative AI, the model turns standard tissue scans into comprehensive molecular tumor profiles in just a couple of hours, sparing doctors from waiting on traditional immunohistochemistry — a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly diagnostic gold standard.

These algorithms help evaluate key markers (ER, PR, HER2) and analyze the tumor's immune microenvironment from a standard histological slice. This solution is especially vital for remote regional clinics and centers that lack specialized, expensive equipment, ensuring that patients who may not be able to travel to major medical centers still have access to life-saving accurate diagnostics.

Svetlana’s project, "Intelligent Pathomorphology," won the international "Women for a Healthy Society" competition, and she received her award from Valentina Matvienko, Chairwoman of the Federation Council.