# WISE: A Framework for Gigapixel Whole-Slide-Image Lossless Compression

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18074 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18074/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 16 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [Pixel Recurrent Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.06759/) (2016)
- [PixelCNN++: Improving the PixelCNN with Discretized Logistic Mixture Likelihood and Other Modifications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.05517/) (2017)
- [Integer Discrete Flows and Lossless Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.07376/) (2019)
- [Bit-Swap: Recursive Bits-Back Coding for Lossless Compression with Hierarchical Latent Variables](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.06845/) (2019)
- [Histopathology Whole Slide Image Analysis with Heterogeneous Graph Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.04189/) (2023)
- [Predicting Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Early Breast Cancer Using Deep Learning on Primary Tumor Biopsy Slides](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02222/) (2021)
- [IDF++: Analyzing and Improving Integer Discrete Flows for Lossless Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.12459/) (2020)
- [A Fast Transformer-based General-Purpose Lossless Compressor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.16114/) (2022)
- [Predicting Ki67, ER, PR, and HER2 Statuses from H&E-stained Breast Cancer Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.01982/) (2023)
- [Extending Unsupervised Neural Image Compression With Supervised Multitask Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.07041/) (2020)
- [LC-FDNet: Learned Lossless Image Compression with Frequency Decomposition Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.06417/) (2021)
- [Advances in Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Analysis: Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09476/) (2024)
- [Geometrically Matched Multi-source Microscopic Image Synthesis Using Bidirectional Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13308/) (2020)
- [DiffKillR: Killing and Recreating Diffeomorphisms for Cell Annotation in Dense Microscopy Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.03058/) (2024)
- [SHAP-CAT: A interpretable multi-modal framework enhancing WSI classification via virtual staining and shapley-value-based multimodal fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01408/) (2024)
- [A Deep Learning-based Compression and Classification Technique for Whole Slide Histopathology Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.07161/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Joint Lossless Compression and Steganography for Medical Images via Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01782/) (2025)
- [Multimodal Model for Computational Pathology:Representation Learning and Image Compression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18660/) (2026)
- [MVHybrid: Improving Spatial Transcriptomics Prediction with Hybrid State Space-Vision Transformer Backbone in Pathology Vision Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00383/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Whole-Slide Images (WSIs) have revolutionized medical analysis by presenting high-resolution images of the whole tissue slide. Despite avoiding the physical storage of the slides, WSIs require considerable data volume, which makes the storage and maintenance of WSI records costly and unsustainable. To this end, this work presents the first investigation of lossless compression of WSI images. Interestingly, we find that most existing compression methods fail to compress the WSI images effectively. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that the failure of existing compressors is mainly due to information irregularity in WSI images. To resolve this issue, we developed a simple yet effective lossless compressor called WISE, specifically designed for WSI images. WISE employs a hierarchical encoding strategy to extract effective bits, reducing the entropy of the image and then adopting a dictionary-based method to handle the irregular frequency patterns. Through extensive experiments, we show that WISE can effectively compress the gigapixel WSI images to 36 times on average and up to 136 times.