Providence receives Pfizer-funded Conquer Cancer grant to use revolutionary AI tool to predict cancer mutations

Providence receives Pfizer-funded Conquer Cancer grant to use revolutionary AI tool to predict cancer mutations is sponsored by Pfizer Global Medical Grants (administered by Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation). This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

Providence receives Pfizer-funded Conquer Cancer grant to use revolutionary AI tool to predict cancer mutations Providence receives Pfizer-funded Conquer Cancer grant to use revolutionary AI tool to predict cancer mutations Providence receives Pfizer-funded Conquer Cancer grant to use revolutionary AI tool to predict cancer mutations Grant will fund pilot to use Prov-GigaPath to predict biomarkers in lung and colorectal cancer tumors among Oregon patients RENTON, Wash.

[March 24, 2026] — Providence has received a $250,000 grant from Pfizer Global Medical Grants to deploy an innovative AI framework to benefit cancer patients in Oregon. The one-year grant, funded by Pfizer, and powered by Conquer Cancer’s EveryGrant ®, will support a pilot test of the first real-world deployment of an AI model that predicts clinically actionable biomarkers based on digital pathology slides from cancer patients.

Known as Prov-GigaPath , the AI model will be used to predict mutations in lung and colorectal cancer tumors. The pilot will deploy initially in the Providence Oregon region. When the model predicts a mutation, oncologists will be notified and encouraged to order genomic testing for the patient, which can lead to a personalized immunotherapy treatment plan to neutralize the tumor.

The team is developing the pilot now with a targeted launch date in spring 2026. “Our goal with Prov-GigaPath is to accelerate precision medicine workflows and ensure precision treatment pathways are available to all,” said Brian Piening, Ph. D.

, director of research for Providence Genomics. “This grant is giving us the opportunity to rapidly deploy these tools, and our hope is that others will be able to adopt Prov-GigaPath into their clinical settings as well. ” Providence Genomics is part of the newly launched Providence Institute for Clinical Innovation .

This research is an example of how the institute works with partners and uses evidence-based research to learn and then scale innovations into care. “Prov-GigaPath is a profound technical achievement, but this innovative use of AI is ultimately about ensuring that each patient gets access to the right therapy as quickly as possible,” said Kristin Brown, PICI executive director.

“Personalized, targeted therapies can deliver a better experience and better outcomes. Our commitment is to advance precision medicine and lead the field by delivering precise, personalized treatment. This grant enables us to push that work forward and is a great example of how the institute is turning bold ideas into everyday care.

” The short timeframe of the project was one of the key parameters of the program, which provides funding for one-year projects. The program is supporting projects that will leverage technology in innovative ways to improve patient outcomes by increasing the timely utilization of biomarker-based testing and treatment. Providence and Microsoft Research launched Prov-GigaPath in 2024.

The tool, featured in Nature in May of that year, captures global patterns across entire pathology slides, allowing it to replicate complex tasks in pathology as well as provide insights like biomarker prediction that a human pathologist cannot. Providence and Microsoft Research built the framework from nearly 172,000 deidentified digital pathology slides from more than 31,000 patients covering 31 major tissue types.

Dr. Piening explained that Prov-GigaPath will reduce the amount of time and expense to locate cancer mutations and begin treatment. “Prov-GigaPath has been downloaded more than 3 million times by researchers around the world since we launched it,” Dr. Piening said. “It can identify cancer cells and tumor type from digital pathology slides.

With very high accuracy, it predicts the underlying mutations driving that cancer just by looking at the slide image. “This is information the oncologist needs because certain biomarkers are treatable with targeted, precision therapies which don’t involve chemotherapy, so the patient will respond better,” he continued.

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