Deep learning-based fully automated differential diagnosis of eyelid basal cell and sebaceous carcinoma using whole slide images

Differentiation and risk stratification of basal cell carcinoma with deep learning on histopathologic images and measuring nuclei and tumor microenvironment features

BACKGROUND

Nuclear pleomorphism and tumor microenvironment (TME) play a critical role in cancer development and progression. Identifying most predictive nuclei and TME features of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) may provide insights into which characteristics pathologists can use to distinguish and stratify this entity.

OBJECTIVES

To develop an automated workflow based on nuclei and TME features from basaloid cell tumor regions to differentiate BCC from trichoepithelioma (TE) and stratify BCC into high-risk (HR) and low-risk (LR) subtypes, and to identify the nuclear and TME characteristics profile of different basaloid cell tumors.

METHODS

The deep learning systems were trained on 161 H&E -stained sections which contained 51 sections of HR-BCC, 50 sections of LR-BCC and 60 sections of TE from one institution (D1), and externally and independently validated on D2 (46 sections) and D3 (76 sections), from 2015 to 2022. 60%, 20% and 20% of D1 data were randomly splitted for training, validation and testing, respectively. The framework comprised four stages: tumor regions identification by multi-head self-attention (MSA) U-Net, nuclei segmentation by HoVer-Net, quantitative feature by handcrafted extraction, and differentiation and risk stratification classifier construction. Pixel accuracy, precision, recall, dice score, intersection over union (IoU) and area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the performance of tumor segmentation model and classifiers.

RESULTS

MSA-U-Net model detected tumor regions with 0.910 precision, 0.869 recall, 0.889 dice score and 0.800 IoU. The differentiation classifier achieved 0.977 ± 0.0159, 0.955 ± 0.0181, 0.885 ± 0.0237 AUC in D1, D2 and D3, respectively. The most discriminative features between BCC and TE contained Homogeneity, Elongation, T-T_meanEdgeLength, T-T_Nsubgraph, S-T_HarmonicCentrality, S-S_Degrees. The risk stratification model can well predict HR-BCC and LR-BCC with 0.920 ± 0.0579, 0.839 ± 0.0176, 0.825 ± 0.0153 AUC in D1, D2 and D3, respectively. The most discriminative features between HR-BCC and LR-BCC comprised IntensityMin, Solidity, T-T_minEdgeLength, T-T_Coreness, T-T_Degrees, T-T_Betweenness, S-T_Degrees.

CONCLUSIONS

This framework hold potential for future use as a second opinion helping inform diagnosis of BCC, and identify nuclei and TME features related with malignancy and tumor risk stratification.

Applying an artificial intelligence deep learning approach to routine dermatopathological diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Institutes of dermatopathology are faced with considerable challenges including a continuously rising numbers of submitted specimens and a shortage of specialized health care practitioners. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is one of the most common tumors in the fair-skinned western population and represents a major part of samples submitted for histological evaluation. Digitalizing glass slides has enabled the application of artificial intelligence (AI)-based procedures. To date, these methods have found only limited application in routine diagnostics. The aim of this study was to establish an AI-based model for automated BCC detection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In three dermatopathological centers, daily routine practice BCC cases were digitalized. The diagnosis was made both conventionally by analog microscope and digitally through an AI-supported algorithm based on a U-Net architecture neural network.

RESULTS

In routine practice, the model achieved a sensitivity of 98.23% (center 1) and a specificity of 98.51%. The model generalized successfully without additional training to samples from the other centers, achieving similarly high accuracies in BCC detection (sensitivities of 97.67% and 98.57% and specificities of 96.77% and 98.73% in centers 2 and 3, respectively). In addition, automated AI-based basal cell carcinoma subtyping and tumor thickness measurement were established.

CONCLUSIONS

AI-based methods can detect BCC with high accuracy in a routine clinical setting and significantly support dermatopathological work.

Einsatz künstlicher Intelligenz mittels Deep Learning in der dermatopathologischen Routinediagnostik des Basalzellkarzinoms: Applying an artificial intelligence deep learning approach to routine dermatopathological diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma

Hintergrund

Dermatopathologische Institute stehen aufgrund immer höherer Anforderungen bei andererseits schwindenden Ressourcen vor zunehmenden Herausforderungen. Basalzellkarzinome stellen einen Großteil des Einsendeguts mit entsprechendem Arbeitsaufwand dar. Gleichzeitig ermöglicht die Digitalisierung von Glasobjektträgern den Einsatz künstlicher Intelligenz (KI)‐basierter Verfahren in der Dermatopathologie. Bislang haben diese Verfahren keinen Einzug in die Routinediagnostik gefunden. Ziel dieser Studie war daher, den Einsatz eines KI‐basierten Modells zur automatisierten Basalzellkarzinom‐Erkennung zu etablieren.

Patienten und Methodik

In drei dermatopathologischen Zentren wurden während des täglichen Routinebetriebs Basalzellkarzinom‐Fälle digitalisiert und sowohl klassisch am Mikroskop als auch mittels KI‐basierter Methodik basierend auf neuronalen Netzen mit U‐Net‐Architektur befundet.

Ergebnisse

Im Routinebetrieb erzielte das Modell eine Sensitivität von 98,23 % und eine Spezifität von 98,51 % (Zentrum 1). Das Modell konnte übergangslos in den anderen Zentren Einsatz finden und erreichte ähnlich hohe Genauigkeiten in der Basalzellkarzinom‐Erkennung (Sensitivität von 97,67 % beziehungsweise 98,57 %, Spezifität von 96,77 % beziehungsweise 98,73 %). Zusätzlich wurden eine automatisierte, KI‐basierte Basalzellkarzinom‐Subtypisierung und Tumordickenmessung etabliert.

Schlussfolgerungen

KI‐basierte Verfahren können mit einer hohen Genauigkeit im Routinebetrieb Basalzellkarzinome erkennen und signifikant die dermatopathologische Arbeit unterstützen.

MAC-ResNet: Knowledge Distillation Based Lightweight Multiscale-Attention-Crop-ResNet for Eyelid Tumors Detection and Classification

Eyelid tumors are tumors that occur in the eye and its appendages, affecting vision and appearance, causing blindness and disability, and some having a high lethality rate. Pathological images of eyelid tumors are characterized by large pixels, multiple scales, and similar features. Solving the problem of difficult and time-consuming fine-grained classification of pathological images is important to improve the efficiency and quality of pathological diagnosis. The morphology of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), Meibomian Gland Carcinoma (MGC), and Cutaneous Melanoma (CM) in eyelid tumors are very similar, and it is easy to be misdiagnosed among each category. In addition, the diseased area, which is decisive for the diagnosis of the disease, usually occupies only a relatively minor portion of the entire pathology section, and screening the area of interest is a tedious and time-consuming task. In this paper, deep learning techniques to investigate the pathological images of eyelid tumors. Inspired by the knowledge distillation process, we propose the Multiscale-Attention-Crop-ResNet (MAC-ResNet) network model to achieve the automatic classification of three malignant tumors and the automatic localization of whole slide imaging (WSI) lesion regions using U-Net. The final accuracy rates of the three classification problems of eyelid tumors on MAC-ResNet were 96.8%, 94.6%, and 90.8%, respectively.

Orbital and eyelid diseases: The next breakthrough in artificial intelligence?

Orbital and eyelid disorders affect normal visual functions and facial appearance, and precise oculoplastic and reconstructive surgeries are crucial. Artificial intelligence (AI) network models exhibit a remarkable ability to analyze large sets of medical images to locate lesions. Currently, AI-based technology can automatically diagnose and grade orbital and eyelid diseases, such as thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO), as well as measure eyelid morphological parameters based on external ocular photographs to assist surgical strategies. The various types of imaging data for orbital and eyelid diseases provide a large amount of training data for network models, which might be the next breakthrough in AI-related research. This paper retrospectively summarizes different imaging data aspects addressed in AI-related research on orbital and eyelid diseases, and discusses the advantages and limitations of this research field.