Deep Learning for Fully Automatic Tumor Segmentation on Serially Acquired Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Images of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Cancers (Basel). 2023 Oct 2;15(19):4829. doi: 10.3390/cancers15194829.

Abstract

Accurate tumor segmentation is required for quantitative image analyses, which are increasingly used for evaluation of tumors. We developed a fully automated and high-performance segmentation model of triple-negative breast cancer using a self-configurable deep learning framework and a large set of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI images acquired serially over the patients' treatment course. Among all models, the top-performing one that was trained with the images across different time points of a treatment course yielded a Dice similarity coefficient of 93% and a sensitivity of 96% on baseline images. The top-performing model also produced accurate tumor size measurements, which is valuable for practical clinical applications.

Keywords: deep learning; triple-negative breast cancer; tumor segmentation.