Enhanced Multi-Class Skin Lesion Classification of Dermoscopic Images Using an Ensemble of Deep Learning Models

Abstract

This study presents an advanced approach to multi-class skin lesion classification by leveraging an ensemble model comprising the Inception-V3, ResNet-50, and VGG16 architectures. The classification task focuses on categorizing skin lesions into distinct classes, including Melanoma, basal cell carcinoma (BCC), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), using the ISIC dataset, a comprehensive collection of dermoscopic images. In order to properly balance the dataset, the oversampling strategy is utilized, as some lesion types are underrepresented due to inherent imbalances in the dataset. By ensuring that the model is trained on a more representative dataset, this balancing improves the algorithm's capacity to categorize all lesion types properly and impartially. By combining the complementary features of ResNet-50, Inception-V3, and VGG16, the ensemble technique improves the overall classification performance. ResNet-50 is chosen for its deep feature extraction capabilities, which help capture fine details in lesion patterns. Inception-V3 is selected for its multi-scale processing, allowing it to effectively analyze lesions at varying resolutions and sizes. VGG16 is included due to its simple yet highly effective architecture for image classification tasks. The ensemble model with data augmentation significantly outperforms individual models in skin lesion classification for both the original and balanced ISIC datasets regarding accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. This method offers a robust solution for skin lesion classification, contributing to more accurate and reliable diagnostic tools in dermatology.