Titre du document / Document title

Computer-aided diagnostic scheme for distinction between benign and malignant nodules in thoracic low-dose CT by use of massive training artificial neural network

Auteur(s) / Author(s)

SUZUKI Kenji ; FENG LI ; SONE Shusuke ; DOI Kunio ;

Résumé / Abstract

Low-dose helical computed tomography (LDCT) is being applied as a modality for lung cancer screening. It may be difficult, however, for radiologists to distinguish malignant from benign nodules in LDCT. Our purpose in this study was to develop a computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) scheme for distinction between benign and malignant nodules in LDCT scans by use of a massive training artificial neural network (MTANN). The MTANN is a trainable, highly nonlinear filter based on an artificial neural network. To distinguish malignant nodules from six different types of benign nodules, we developed multiple MTANNs (multi-MTANN) consisting of six expert MTANNs that are arranged in parallel. Each of the MTANNs was trained by use of input CT images and teaching images containing the estimate of the distribution for the "likelihood of being a malignant nodule," i.e., the teaching image for a malignant nodule contains a two-dimensional Gaussian distribution and that for a benign nodule contains zero. Each MTANN was trained independently with ten typical malignant nodules and ten benign nodules from each of the six types. The outputs of the six MTANNs were combined by use of an integration ANN such that the six types of benign nodules could be distinguished from malignant nodules. After training of the integration ANN, our scheme provided a value related to the "likelihood of malignancy" of a nodule, i.e., a higher value indicates a malignant nodule, and a lower value indicates a benign nodule. Our database consisted of 76 primary lung cancers in 73 patients and 413 benign nodules in 342 patients, which were obtained from a lung cancer screening program on 7847 screenees with LDCT for three years in Nagano, Japan. The performance of our scheme for distinction between benign and malignant nodules was evaluated by use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Our scheme achieved an Az (area under the ROC curve) value of 0.882 in a round-robin test. Our scheme correctly identified 100% (76/76) of malignant nodules as malignant, whereas 48% (200/413) of benign nodules were identified correctly as benign. Therefore, our scheme may be useful in assisting radiologists in the diagnosis of lung nodules in LDCT.

Revue / Journal Title

IEEE transactions on medical imaging   ISSN 0278-0062   CODEN ITMID4 

Source / Source

2005, vol. 24, n^o9, pp. 1138-1150 [13 page(s) (article)]

Langue / Language

Anglais

Editeur / Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, NY, ETATS-UNIS  (1982) (Revue)

Mots-clés d'auteur / Author Keywords

Artificial neural network ; computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) ; likelihood of malignancy ; low-dose CT ; lung nodule ;

Localisation / Location

INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 222 Y, 35400013213666.0050