Cancer patients at the Kalyan Singh Super Speciality Cancer Institute (KSSSCI) in Lucknow should soon spend less time waiting for a diagnosis. The Uttar Pradesh government institute has commissioned a digital pathology facility that officials say will bring biopsy and diagnostic reports down to five days or less, from the eight to ten days patients typically wait today.

The facility, set up at a cost of ₹2.16 crore, was inaugurated on Tuesday by KSSSCI Director Prof M L B Bhatt during the institute’s pathology foundation day programme, organised by its Department of Onco-Pathology.

From glass slides to a digital workflow

Digital pathology replaces the conventional practice of reading glass slides under a microscope with high-resolution digital images of tissue samples. Once a slide is scanned, it can be viewed, annotated and shared on screen, and stored as part of a permanent electronic record.

According to KSSSCI Medical Superintendent Dr Varun Vijay, the move to a digitised workflow cuts processing delays, reduces the room for human error and lets the laboratory handle a larger volume of samples. Biopsy reports that earlier took around eight days can now be generated in five days or less, he said.

Tele-pathology for second opinions and rural patients

A key advantage of the new system is tele-pathology. Scanned slides can be shared instantly with specialists inside the institute and with experts at other centres, making faster consultations and second opinions possible in complex cancer cases without physically transporting glass slides.

The institute expects this to help patients from rural and remote parts of the state. Tissue samples collected at peripheral healthcare centres can be digitised and transmitted to KSSSCI for evaluation, reducing the need for patients to travel to Lucknow for consultations and reports.

Dr Deepti Mishra, Head of the Department of Onco-Pathology, said the platform will also improve long-term preservation of pathology records, an important benefit for follow-up care and research in oncology.

AI in cancer pathology on the agenda

The foundation day programme also featured an oration on “Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Pathology: Applications, Challenges and Future Prospects” by Prof Manoj Jain, Dean and Head of Pathology at SGPGIMS, Lucknow. Prof Madhumati Goel, Director of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Medanta Lucknow, attended as chief guest.

Why it matters

Turnaround time for histopathology is one of the quieter bottlenecks in cancer care: treatment decisions on surgery, chemotherapy or radiation often cannot begin until a biopsy report is in hand. By digitising slides, public cancer institutes such as KSSSCI can shorten that wait, extend scarce pathologist expertise across districts, and lay the data foundation for AI-assisted diagnostics in the years ahead.

Photo: Kalyan Singh Super Speciality Cancer Institute, Lucknow. Credit: Sorcersuperior / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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