无监督方法在标注稀疏时仍可超越有监督模型,提升早期肺癌检测能力。
Can Unsupervised Methods Outperform Supervised Deep Learning When Ground Truth Is Sparse? A Case Study of Bronchovascular Bundle Segmentation in Low-Dose CT
- 提出RonalD无监督分割流程,分步处理肺、叶与纵隔,再独立分割血管与支气管
- 在两个低剂量CT数据集上,结节保留率从不足90%提升至接近100%
- 适合缺乏标注数据的医学图像分割场景,尤其适用于早期肺癌筛查
肺癌是全球致死率最高的癌症,常因诊断过晚而错过最佳治疗时机。早期筛查依赖于对微小结节的精准识别,但其在低剂量CT中易被邻近血管和支气管遮蔽。针对此问题,本文提出无监督分割方法RONALD,用于分离肺实质内的支气管血管束。该方法首先进行肺、叶及纵隔分割,随后分别完成血管与支气管树的二值化分割。在广泛使用的DLCS和波美拉尼亚肺癌筛查项目(Pomeranian)数据集上验证,该方法显著提升了结节保留率:在DLCS数据集中从93.98%和90.36%提升至100%,在波美拉尼亚数据集中从83.16%和62.36%提升至99.92%。结果表明,该分割结果有助于提升早期肺癌筛查中的结节检出率。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Background Lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer worldwide because it is often diagnosed too late. Effective treatment depends on detection at an early screening stage. However, the growing number of patients and the limited number of radiologists lead to prolonged diagnostic waiting times. In very early stage lung cancer, nodule visibility is further reduced by adjacent blood vessels and airway walls, because nodules are often connected to or supplied by these structures. Task-specific analysis of the bronchovascular bundle is therefore important for efficient nodule detection, and its removal can increase the diagnostic potential of lung cancer screening. Materials and Methods To assess the efficacy of the proposed method, we used series from widely utilized LDCT datasets, including the Duke Lung Cancer Screening (DLCS) dataset and the Pilot Pomeranian Lung Cancer Screening Program. The proposed bronchovascular bundle segmentation pipeline, RONALD, operates on computed tomography images and returns binary masks of vessels and bronchi located in the lung parenchyma. The method includes a preprocessing stage with lung, lobe, and mediastinum segmentation, followed by separate vessel and bronchial tree segmentation. Results The proposed pipeline segmented the bronchovascular bundle in low-dose computed tomography scans while improving nodule retention compared with other segmentation methods: from 93.98% and 90.36% to 100% in DLCS, and from 83.16% and 62.36% to 99.92% in the Pomeranian dataset. Conclusion The resulting segmentations can improve lung nodule detection in the very early stages of lung cancer.
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