Cervical Cell Classification Research Articles

A systematic review on deep learning based methods for cervical cell image analysis

Cervical cytology image analysis is indispensable for the detection of abnormal cervical cells. Traditionally, manual screening is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, a lot of deep learning (DL)-based automatic detection methods have been employed in this field to provide timely, accurate and objective results. In this study, we systematically review the current developments in cervical cell image analysis with DL methods. Specifically, we first present the most popular DL models that are widely applied in cervical cell analysis. Second, we describe the methodology for conducting this review. Third, we provide all publicly available datasets related to cervical cell images to the best of our knowledge. Then, we introduce relevant evaluation metrics and loss functions. Next, we summarize and assort the applications for cervical cell classification and segmentation. Afterwards, we discuss about current challenges and future research directions in this field. Finally, we draw the conclusion of this review.According to the analysis, we conclude that the studies based on DL models have maintained an increasing trend in recent years, which indicates the potential of DL in cervical cell image analysis. In cervical cell image classification, CNN is the most commonly used DL model. Among CNN models, we can find that VGGNet and ResNet are the most popular network architectures for the classification of cervical cells. Transformer is the second commonly used DL model. Moreover, Herlev and SIPaKMeD are the most popular public datasets used for cervical cell classification. In cervical cell segmentation, U-Net and FCN are the two most popular DL architectures. In addition, ISBI2014 and Herlev datasets are the most frequently used among the existing publicly available segmentation datasets. However, there are some issues in this field, such as poor cervical cell classification performance as a result of similar pathological properties between different cell categories. Therefore, it is necessary to develop more effective methods with DL models to improve these issues in the future research.

Classification of cervical cells from the Pap smear image using the RES_DCGAN data augmentation and ResNet50V2 with self-attention architecture

AbstractCervical cancer is a type of cancer in which abnormal cell growth occurs on the surface lining of the cervix. In this study, we propose a novel residual deep convolutional generative adversarial network (RES_DCGAN) for data augmentation and ResNet50V2 self-attention method to classify cervical cells, to improve the generalizability and performance of the model. The proposed method involves adding residual blocks in the generator of the DCGAN to enhance data flow and generate higher-quality images. Subsequently, a self-attention mechanism is incorporated at the top of the pre-trained models to allow the model to focus more on significant features of the input data. To evaluate our approach, we utilized the Pomeranian and SIPaKMeD cervical cell imaging datasets. The results demonstrate superior performance, achieving an accuracy of 98% with Xception and 96.4% with ResNet50V2 on the Pomeranian dataset. Additionally, DenseNet121 with self-attention achieved accuracies of 92% and 95% in multiclass and binary classification, respectively, using the SIPaKMeD dataset. In conclusion, our RES_DCGAN-based data augmentation and pre-trained with self-attention model yields a promising result in the classification of cervical cancer cells.

VTCNet: A Feature Fusion DL Model Based on CNN and ViT for the Classification of Cervical Cells

ABSTRACTCervical cancer is a common malignancy worldwide with high incidence and mortality rates in underdeveloped countries. The Pap smear test, widely used for early detection of cervical cancer, aims to minimize missed diagnoses, which sometimes results in higher false‐positive rates. To enhance manual screening practices, computer‐aided diagnosis (CAD) systems based on machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) for classifying cervical Pap cells have been extensively researched. In our study, we introduced a DL‐based method named VTCNet for the task of cervical cell classification. Our approach combines CNN‐SPPF and ViT components, integrating modules like Focus and SeparableC3, to capture more potential information, extract local and global features, and merge them to enhance classification performance. We evaluated our method on the public SIPaKMeD dataset, achieving accuracies, precision, recall, and F1 scores of 97.16%, 97.22%, 97.19%, and 97.18%, respectively. We also conducted additional experiments on the Herlev dataset, where our results outperformed previous methods. The VTCNet method achieved higher classification accuracy than traditional ML or shallow DL models through this integration. Related codes: https://github.com/Camellia‐0892/VTCNet/tree/main.

A two-stream decision fusion network for cervical pap-smear image classification tasks

Deep learning, especially Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs), has demonstrated superior performance in image recognition and classification tasks. They make complex pattern recognition possible by extracting image features through layers of abstraction. However, despite the excellent performance of deep learning in general image classification, its limitations are becoming apparent in specific domains such as cervical cell medical image classification. This is because although the morphology of cervical cells varies between normal, diseased and cancerous, these differences are sometimes very small and difficult to capture. To solve this problem, we propose a two-stream feature fusion model comprising a manual feature branch, a deep feature branch, and a decision fusion module. Specifically, We process cervical cells through a modified DarkNet backbone network to extract deep features. In order to enhance the learning of deep features, we have devised scale convolution blocks to substitute the original convolution, termed Basic convolution blocks. The manual feature branch comprises a range of traditional features and is linked to a multilayer perceptron. Additionally, we design three decision feature channels trained from both manual and deep features to enhance the model performance in cervical cell classification. Our proposed model demonstrates superior performance when compared to state-of-the-art cervical cell classification models. We establish a 15-category 148762 cervical cytopathology image dataset (CCID). In addition, we additionally conducted experiments on the SIPaKMeD dataset. Numerous experiments show that our proposed model performs excellently compared to state-of-the-art classification models. The outcomes illustrate that our approach can significantly aid pathologists in accurately evaluating cervical smears.

Distillation of multi-class cervical lesion cell detection via synthesis-aided pre-training and patch-level feature alignment

Automated detection of cervical abnormal cells from Thin-prep cytologic test (TCT) images is crucial for efficient cervical abnormal screening using computer-aided diagnosis systems. However, the construction of the detection model is hindered by the preparation of the training images, which usually suffers from issues of class imbalance and incomplete annotations. Additionally, existing methods often overlook the visual feature correlations among cells, which are crucial in cervical lesion cell detection as pathologists commonly rely on surrounding cells for identification. In this paper, we propose a distillation framework that utilizes a patch-level pre-training network to guide the training of an image-level detection network, which can be applied to various detectors without changing their architectures during inference. The main contribution is three-fold: (1) We propose the Balanced Pre-training Model (BPM) as the patch-level cervical cell classification model, which employs an image synthesis model to construct a class-balanced patch dataset for pre-training. (2) We design the Score Correction Loss (SCL) to enable the detection network to distill knowledge from the BPM model, thereby mitigating the impact of incomplete annotations. (3) We design the Patch Correlation Consistency (PCC) strategy to exploit the correlation information of extracted cells, consistent with the behavior of cytopathologists. Experiments on public and private datasets demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed distillation method, as well as its adaptability to various detection architectures.

Automatic Classification of Cervical Cells Using Deep Learning Methods

Cervical cancer, second only to breast cancer, is one of the cancers leading to cause death among women. Cervical cancer is a cancer that forms in the cells of the cervix, which is the lower section of the uterus that connects the uterus to the pelvis to the vaginal area. Various forms of the papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection that plays a role in cervical cancer and plays a critical part in most cases. The risk of cervical cancer developing can be reduced by undergoing screenings and receiving a vaccination that protects against HPV infection Cancer prevention is important. Most of the time, this is accomplished by checking the transformation zones. Cervical pre-cancerous stages can be observed in three different types, and all can transfigure into cancer. As a result, it's crucial to screen cervical anomalies sensibly and have a reliable process to determine if a cervix is normal (healthy) or pre-cancerous. Presently, the test being carried is a Pap smear test, commonly referred as a Pap test, which is a cervical screening procedure. It examines the cervix for the presence of pre - cancerous or cancerous cells. At present times deep learning is becoming more important alternative for cancer screening. A cervical cancer detection and classification system based on CNN has been proposed. Deep-learned features are acquired using the CNNs mode

An efficient Fusion-Purification Network for Cervical pap-smear image classification

Background and Objectives:In cervical cell diagnostics, autonomous screening technology constitutes the foundation of automated diagnostic systems. Currently, numerous deep learning-based classification techniques have been successfully implemented in the analysis of cervical cell images, yielding favorable outcomes. Nevertheless, efficient discrimination of cervical cells continues to be challenging due to large intra-class and small inter-class variations. The key to dealing with this problem is to capture localized informative differences from cervical cell images and to represent discriminative features efficiently. Existing methods neglect the importance of global morphological information, resulting in inadequate feature representation capability. Methods:To address this limitation, we propose a novel cervical cell classification model that focuses on purified fusion information. Specifically, we first integrate the detailed texture information and morphological structure features, named cervical pathology information fusion. Second, in order to enhance the discrimination of cervical cell features and address the data redundancy and bias inherent after fusion, we design a cervical purification bottleneck module. This model strikes a balance between leveraging purified features and facilitating high-efficiency discrimination. Furthermore, we intend to unveil a more intricate cervical cell dataset: Cervical Cytopathology Image Dataset (CCID). Results:Extensive experiments on two real-world datasets show that our proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art cervical cell classification models. Conclusions:The results show that our method can well help pathologists to accurately evaluate cervical smears.

Multi-scale window transformer for cervical cytopathology image recognition

Cervical cancer is a major global health issue, particularly in developing countries where access to healthcare is limited. Early detection of pre-cancerous lesions is crucial for successful treatment and reducing mortality rates. However, traditional screening and diagnostic processes require cytopathology doctors to manually interpret a huge number of cells, which is time-consuming, costly, and prone to human experiences. In this paper, we propose a Multi-scale Window Transformer (MWT) for cervical cytopathology image recognition. We design multi-scale window multi-head self-attention (MW-MSA) to simultaneously integrate cell features of different scales. Small window self-attention is used to extract local cell detail features, and large window self-attention aims to integrate features from smaller-scale window attention to achieve window-to-window information interaction. Our design enables long-range feature integration but avoids whole image self-attention (SA) in ViT or twice local window SA in Swin Transformer. We find convolutional feed-forward networks (CFFN) are more efficient than original MLP-based FFN for representing cytopathology images. Our overall model adopts a pyramid architecture. We establish two multi-center cervical cell classification datasets of two-category 192,123 images and four-category 174,138 images. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our MWT outperforms state-of-the-art general classification networks and specialized classifiers for cytopathology images in the internal and external test sets. The results on large-scale datasets prove the effectiveness and generalization of our proposed model. Our work provides a reliable cytopathology image recognition method and helps establish computer-aided screening for cervical cancer. Our code is available at https://github.com/nmyz669/MWT, and our web service tool can be accessed at https://huggingface.co/spaces/nmyz/MWTdemo.

Siamese deep learning video flow cytometry for automatic and label-free clinical cervical cancer cell analysis.

Automatic and label-free screening methods may help to reduce cervical cancer mortality rates, especially in developing regions. The latest advances of deep learning in the biomedical optics field provide a more automatic approach to solving clinical dilemmas. However, existing deep learning methods face challenges, such as the requirement of manually annotated training sets for clinical sample analysis. Here, we develop Siamese deep learning video flow cytometry for the analysis of clinical cervical cancer cell samples in a smear-free manner. High-content light scattering images of label-free single cells are obtained via the video flow cytometer. Siamese deep learning, a self-supervised method, is built to introduce cell lineage cells into an analysis of clinical cells, which utilizes generated similarity metrics as label annotations for clinical cells. Compared with other deep learning methods, Siamese deep learning achieves a higher accuracy of up to 87.11%, with about 5.62% improvement for label-free clinical cervical cancer cell classification. The Siamese deep learning video flow cytometry demonstrated here is promising for automatic, label-free analysis of many types of cells from clinical samples without cell smears.

Automated classification of cervical cells using integrated VGG-16 CNN model

Automated classification of cervical cells using integrated VGG-16 CNN model

Cell classification with worse-case boosting for intelligent cervical cancer screening

Cell classification underpins intelligent cervical cancer screening, a cytology examination that effectively decreases both the morbidity and mortality of cervical cancer. This task, however, is rather challenging, mainly due to the difficulty of collecting a training dataset representative sufficiently of the unseen test data, as there are wide variations of cells’ appearance and shape at different cancerous statuses. This difficulty makes the classifier, though trained properly, often classify wrongly for cells that are underrepresented by the training dataset, eventually leading to a wrong screening result. To address it, we propose a new learning algorithm, called worse-case boosting, for classifiers effectively learning from under-representative datasets in cervical cell classification. The key idea is to learn more from worse-case data for which the classifier has a larger gradient norm compared to other training data, so these data are more likely to correspond to underrepresented data, by dynamically assigning them more training iterations and larger loss weights for boosting the generalizability of the classifier on underrepresented data. We achieve this idea by sampling worse-case data per the gradient norm information and then enhancing their loss values to update the classifier. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this new learning algorithm on two publicly available cervical cell classification datasets (the two largest ones to the best of our knowledge), and positive results (4% accuracy improvement) yield in the extensive experiments. The source codes are available at: https://github.com/YouyiSong/Worse-Case-Boosting.

Cervical cancerous cell classification: opposition-based harmony search for deep feature selection

Cervical cancerous cell classification: opposition-based harmony search for deep feature selection

Cervical cell classification based on strong feature CNN-LSVM network using Adaboost optimization

Cervical cancer is one of the most common causes of death in women in the world, and early screening is an effective means of diagnosis and treatment, which can greatly improve the survival rate. Cervical cell classification model is an effective means to assist screening. However, the existing single model, including CNNs and machine learning methods, still has shortcomings such as unclear feature meaning, low accuracy and insufficient supervision. To solve the shortcomings of a single model, a novel framework based on strong feature Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN)-Lagrangian Support Vector Machine (LSVM) model is proposed for the accurate classification of cervical cells. Strong features extracted by hybrid methods are fused with the abstract ones from hidden layers of LeNet-5, then the fused features are processed with dimension reduction and fed into the LSVM classifier optimized by Adaboost for classification. Proposed model is evaluated using the augmented Herlev and private dataset with the metrics including accuracy (Acc), sensitivity (Sn), and specificity (Sp), which outperformed the baselines and state-of-the-art approaches with the Acc of 99.5% and 94.2% in 2&7-class classification, respectively.

Cervical cell classification with deep-learning algorithms.

Cervical cancer is a serious threat to the lives and health of women. The accurate analysis of cervical cell smear images is an important diagnostic basis for cancer identification. However, pathological data are often complex and difficult to analyze accurately because pathology images contain a wide variety of cells. To improve the recognition accuracy of cervical cell smear images, we propose a novel deep-learning model based on the improved Faster R-CNN, shallow feature enhancement networks, and generative adversarial networks. First, we used a global average pooling layer to enhance the robustness of the data feature transformation. Second, we designed a shallow feature enhancement network to improve the localization and recognition of weak cells. Finally, we established a data augmentation network to improve the detection capability of the model. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed methods are superior to CenterNet, YOLOv5, and Faster R-CNN algorithms in some aspects, such as shorter time consumption, higher recognition precision, and stronger adaptive ability. Its maximum accuracy is 99.81%, and the overall mean average precision is 89.4% for the SIPaKMeD and Herlev datasets. Our method provides a useful reference for cervical cell smear image analysis. The missed diagnosis rate and false diagnosis rate are relatively high for cervical cell smear images of different pathologies and stages. Therefore, our algorithms need to be further improved to achieve a better balance. We will use a hyperspectral microscope to obtain more spectral data of cervical cells and input them into deep-learning models for data processing and classification research. First, we sent training samples of cervical cells into our proposed deep-learning model. Then, we used the proposed model to train eight types of cervical cells. Finally, we utilized the trained classifier to test the untrained samples and obtained the classification results. Fig 1. Deep-learning cervical cell classification framework.

Privacy Preserved Cervical Cancer Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks Applied to Pap Smear Images.

Image processing has enabled faster and more accurate image classification. It has been of great benefit to the health industry. Manually examining medical images like MRI and X-rays can be very time-consuming, more prone to human error, and way more costly. One such examination is the Pap smear exam, where the cervical cells are examined in laboratory settings to distinguish healthy cervical cells from abnormal cells, thus indicating early signs of cervical cancer. In this paper, we propose a convolutional neural network- (CNN-) based cervical cell classification using the publicly available SIPaKMeD dataset having five cell categories: superficial-intermediate, parabasal, koilocytotic, metaplastic, and dyskeratotic. CNN distinguishes between healthy cervical cells, cells with precancerous abnormalities, and benign cells. Pap smear images were segmented, and a deep CNN using four convolutional layers was applied to the augmented images of cervical cells obtained from Pap smear slides. A simple yet efficient CNN is proposed that yields an accuracy of 0.9113% and can be successfully used to classify cervical cells. A simple architecture that yields a reasonably good accuracy can increase the speed of diagnosis and decrease the response time, reducing the computation cost. Future researchers can build upon this model to improve the model's accuracy to get a faster and more accurate prediction.

Equilibrium Optimization Algorithm with Ensemble Learning Based Cervical Precancerous Lesion Classification Model.

Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) with deep learning (DL) and machine learning (ML) has been extensively used to automate labor-intensive and time-consuming work and to help in prognosis and diagnosis. AI's role in biomedical and biological imaging is an emerging field of research and reveals future trends. Cervical cell (CCL) classification is crucial in screening cervical cancer (CC) at an earlier stage. Unlike the traditional classification method, which depends on hand-engineered or crafted features, convolution neural network (CNN) usually categorizes CCLs through learned features. Moreover, the latent correlation of images might be disregarded in CNN feature learning and thereby influence the representative capability of the CNN feature. This study develops an equilibrium optimizer with ensemble learning-based cervical precancerous lesion classification on colposcopy images (EOEL-PCLCCI) technique. The presented EOEL-PCLCCI technique mainly focuses on identifying and classifying cervical cancer on colposcopy images. In the presented EOEL-PCLCCI technique, the DenseNet-264 architecture is used for the feature extractor, and the EO algorithm is applied as a hyperparameter optimizer. An ensemble of weighted voting classifications, namely long short-term memory (LSTM) and gated recurrent unit (GRU), is used for the classification process. A widespread simulation analysis is performed on a benchmark dataset to depict the superior performance of the EOEL-PCLCCI approach, and the results demonstrated the betterment of the EOEL-PCLCCI algorithm over other DL models.

Adaptive fuzzy‐region growing fusion and improved CNN‐ANFIS‐based automated segmentation and classification of cervical cancer

SummaryThe cervical cancer screening mechanisms help to classify cervical lesions into cancerous, precancerous, and normal. But, some of the classification approaches provide optimal outcomes based on the precise spotting and segmenting of cervical cancer. Moreover, still, challenges persist in the precise spotting of cervical cancer. The conventional screening methods for cervical cancer require more experienced pathologists, but it may also lead to poor efficiency and low accuracy. To overcome these issues, medical image processing introduces both machine learning and deep learning methods into cervical cell classification. The major scope of this task is to plan a new cervical cancer diagnosis method using intelligent approaches. Here, the segmentation of abnormality is done by the novel adaptive fuzzy‐region growing fusion model, which is improved by the hybridized optimization algorithm named gray wolf‐tunicate swarm algorithm (GW‐TSA). Then, the new ensemble classification termed Improved convolutional neural network with artificial neural network fuzzy inference system, which depends on the proposed GW‐TSA for performance enhancement through optimizing the hyperparameters. Finally, the simulation findings show that the designed approach is achievable and provides the highest accuracy rate in diagnosing cervical cancer.

Pap Smear Images Classification Using Machine Learning: A Literature Matrix.

Cervical cancer is regularly diagnosed in women all over the world. This cancer is the seventh most frequent cancer globally and the fourth most prevalent cancer among women. Automated and higher accuracy of cervical cancer classification methods are needed for the early diagnosis of cancer. In addition, this study has proved that routine Pap smears could enhance clinical outcomes by facilitating the early diagnosis of cervical cancer. Liquid-based cytology (LBC)/Pap smears for advanced cervical screening is a highly effective precancerous cell detection technology based on cell image analysis, where cells are classed as normal or abnormal. Computer-aided systems in medical imaging have benefited greatly from extraordinary developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. However, resource and computational cost constraints prevent the widespread use of AI-based automation-assisted cervical cancer screening systems. Hence, this paper reviewed the related studies that have been done by previous researchers related to the automation of cervical cancer classification based on machine learning. The objective of this study is to systematically review and analyses the current research on the classification of the cervical using machine learning. The literature that has been reviewed is indexed by Scopus and Web of Science. As a result, for the published paper access until October 2022, this study assessed past approaches for cervical cell classification based on machine learning applications.

Classification of microscopic cervical blood cells using inception ResNet V2 with modified activation function

Cervical cancer is the most frequent and fatal malignancy among women worldwide. If this tumor is detected and treated early enough, the complications it causes can be minimized. Deep learning demonstrated significant promise when imposed on biomedical difficulties such as medical image processing and disease prognostication. Therefore, in this paper, an automatic cervical cell classification approach named IR-PapNet is developed based on Inception-ResNet which is an optimized version of Inception. The learning model’s conventional ReLu activation is replaced with the parametric-rectified linear unit (PReLu) to overcome the nullification of negative values and dying ReLu. Finally, the model loss function is minimized with the SGD optimization model by modifying the attributes of the neural network. Furthermore, we present a simple but efficient noise removal technique called 2D-Discrete Wavelet Transform (2D-DWT) algorithm for enhancing image quality. Experimental results show that this model can achieve a top-1 average identification accuracy of 99.8% on the pap smear cervical Herlev datasets, which verifies its satisfactory performance. The restructured Inception-ResNet network model can obtain significant improvements over most of the state-of-the-art models in 2-class classification, and it achieves a high learning rate without experiencing dead nodes.

Cervical Cell Image Classification-Based Knowledge Distillation.

Current deep-learning-based cervical cell classification methods suffer from parameter redundancy and poor model generalization performance, which creates challenges for the intelligent classification of cervical cytology smear images. In this paper, we establish a method for such classification that combines transfer learning and knowledge distillation. This new method not only transfers common features between different source domain data, but also realizes model-to-model knowledge transfer using the unnormalized probability output between models as knowledge. A multi-exit classification network is then introduced as the student network, where a global context module is embedded in each exit branch. A self-distillation method is then proposed to fuse contextual information; deep classifiers in the student network guide shallow classifiers to learn, and multiple classifier outputs are fused using an average integration strategy to form a classifier with strong generalization performance. The experimental results show that the developed method achieves good results using the SIPaKMeD dataset. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F-measure of the five classifications are 98.52%, 98.53%, 98.68%, 98.59%, respectively. The effectiveness of the method is further verified on a natural image dataset.