Application of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Models in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Using Medical Images: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the deadliest and most common causes of malignancy and death in men worldwide, with a higher prevalence and mortality in developing countries specifically. Factors such as age, family history, race and certain genetic mutations are some of the factors contributing to the occurrence of PCa in men. Recent advances in technology and algorithms gave rise to the computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of PCa. With the availability of medical image datasets and emerging trends in state-of-the-art machine and deep learning techniques, there has been a growth in recent related publications. Materials and Methods: In this study, we present a systematic review of PCa diagnosis with medical images using machine learning and deep learning techniques. We conducted a thorough review of the relevant studies indexed in four databases (IEEE, PubMed, Springer and ScienceDirect) using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. With well-defined search terms, a total of 608 articles were identified, and 77 met the final inclusion criteria. The key elements in the included papers are presented and conclusions are drawn from them. Results: The findings show that the United States has the most research in PCa diagnosis with machine learning, Magnetic Resonance Images are the most used datasets and transfer learning is the most used method of diagnosing PCa in recent times. In addition, some available PCa datasets and some key considerations for the choice of loss function in the deep learning models are presented. The limitations and lessons learnt are discussed, and some key recommendations are made. Conclusion: The discoveries and the conclusions of this work are organized so as to enable researchers in the same domain to use this work and make crucial implementation decisions.