The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women worldwide, and early detection can help reduce the death rate. Infrared thermography has gained popularity as a non-invasive and rapid method for detecting this pathology and can be further enhanced by applying neural networks to extract...

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Main Authors: Andrés Munguía-Siu, Irene Vergara, Juan Horacio Espinoza-Rodríguez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Journal of Imaging
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/10/12/329
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author Andrés Munguía-Siu
Irene Vergara
Juan Horacio Espinoza-Rodríguez
author_facet Andrés Munguía-Siu
Irene Vergara
Juan Horacio Espinoza-Rodríguez
author_sort Andrés Munguía-Siu
collection DOAJ
description Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women worldwide, and early detection can help reduce the death rate. Infrared thermography has gained popularity as a non-invasive and rapid method for detecting this pathology and can be further enhanced by applying neural networks to extract spatial and even temporal data derived from breast thermographic images if they are acquired sequentially. In this study, we evaluated hybrid convolutional-recurrent neural network (CNN-RNN) models based on five state-of-the-art pre-trained CNN architectures coupled with three RNNs to discern tumor abnormalities in dynamic breast thermographic images. The hybrid architecture that achieved the best performance for detecting breast cancer was VGG16-LSTM, which showed accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SENS), and specificity (SPEC) of 95.72%, 92.76%, and 98.68%, respectively, with a CPU runtime of 3.9 s. However, the hybrid architecture that showed the fastest CPU runtime was AlexNet-RNN with 0.61 s, although with lower performance (ACC: 80.59%, SENS: 68.52%, SPEC: 92.76%), but still superior to AlexNet (ACC: 69.41%, SENS: 52.63%, SPEC: 86.18%) with 0.44 s. Our findings show that hybrid CNN-RNN models outperform stand-alone CNN models, indicating that temporal data recovery from dynamic breast thermographs is possible without significantly compromising classifier runtime.
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spelling doaj-art-2e58a4842e2c4124a16cd4f1f8d263b82025-08-20T02:53:37ZengMDPI AGJournal of Imaging2313-433X2024-12-01101232910.3390/jimaging10120329The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast ThermographyAndrés Munguía-Siu0Irene Vergara1Juan Horacio Espinoza-Rodríguez2Department of Computing, Electronics and Mechatronics, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Sta. Catarina Martir, San Andrés Cholula 72810, MexicoDepartment of Immunology, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04510, MexicoDepartment of Computing, Electronics and Mechatronics, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Sta. Catarina Martir, San Andrés Cholula 72810, MexicoBreast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women worldwide, and early detection can help reduce the death rate. Infrared thermography has gained popularity as a non-invasive and rapid method for detecting this pathology and can be further enhanced by applying neural networks to extract spatial and even temporal data derived from breast thermographic images if they are acquired sequentially. In this study, we evaluated hybrid convolutional-recurrent neural network (CNN-RNN) models based on five state-of-the-art pre-trained CNN architectures coupled with three RNNs to discern tumor abnormalities in dynamic breast thermographic images. The hybrid architecture that achieved the best performance for detecting breast cancer was VGG16-LSTM, which showed accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SENS), and specificity (SPEC) of 95.72%, 92.76%, and 98.68%, respectively, with a CPU runtime of 3.9 s. However, the hybrid architecture that showed the fastest CPU runtime was AlexNet-RNN with 0.61 s, although with lower performance (ACC: 80.59%, SENS: 68.52%, SPEC: 92.76%), but still superior to AlexNet (ACC: 69.41%, SENS: 52.63%, SPEC: 86.18%) with 0.44 s. Our findings show that hybrid CNN-RNN models outperform stand-alone CNN models, indicating that temporal data recovery from dynamic breast thermographs is possible without significantly compromising classifier runtime.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/10/12/329breast cancerdeep learningneural networksCNN-RNNthermographybinary classification
spellingShingle Andrés Munguía-Siu
Irene Vergara
Juan Horacio Espinoza-Rodríguez
The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography
Journal of Imaging
breast cancer
deep learning
neural networks
CNN-RNN
thermography
binary classification
title The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography
title_full The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography
title_fullStr The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography
title_full_unstemmed The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography
title_short The Use of Hybrid CNN-RNN Deep Learning Models to Discriminate Tumor Tissue in Dynamic Breast Thermography
title_sort use of hybrid cnn rnn deep learning models to discriminate tumor tissue in dynamic breast thermography
topic breast cancer
deep learning
neural networks
CNN-RNN
thermography
binary classification
url https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/10/12/329
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