Abstract Background We proposed an artificial intelligence-based immune index, Deep-immune score, quantifying the infiltration of immune cells interacting with the tumor stroma in hematoxylin and eosin-stained whole-slide images of colorectal cancer. Methods A total of 1010 colorectal cancer patients from three centers were enrolled in this retrospective study, divided into a primary (N = 544) and a validation cohort (N = 466). We proposed the Deep-immune score, which reflected both tumor stroma proportion and the...