CLSSL-ResNet: Predicting malignancy of solitary pulmonary nodules from CT images by chimeric label with self-supervised learning

Tianhu Zhao, Shouliang Qi, Yong Yue, Baihua Zhang, Jingxu Li, Yanhua Wen, Yudong Yao, Wei Qian, Yubao Guan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Pulmonary granulomatous nodules (GN) with spiculation or lobulation have a similar morphological appearance to solid lung adenocarcinoma (SADC) under computed tomography (CT). However, these two kinds of solid pulmonary nodules (SPN) have different malignancies and are sometimes misdiagnosed. Objective: This study aims to predict malignancies of SPNs by a deep learning model automatically. Methods: A chimeric label with self-supervised learning (CLSSL) is proposed to pre-train a ResNet-based network (CLSSL-ResNet) for distinguishing isolated atypical GN from SADC in CT images. The malignancy, rotation, and morphology labels are integrated into a chimeric label and utilized to pre-train a ResNet50. The pre-trained ResNet50 is then transferred and fine-tuned to predict the malignancy of SPN. Two image datasets of 428 subjects (Dataset1, 307; Dataset2, 121) from different hospitals are collected. Dataset1 is divided into training, validation, and test data by a ratio of 7:1:2 to develop the model. Dataset2 is utilized as an external validation dataset. Results: CLSSL-ResNet achieves an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.944 and an accuracy (ACC) of 91.3%, which was much higher than that of the consensus of two experienced chest radiologists (77.3%). CLSSL-ResNet also outperforms other self-supervised learning models and many counterparts of other backbone networks. In Dataset2, AUC and ACC of CLSSL-ResNet are 0.923 and 89.3%, respectively. Additionally, the ablation experiment result indicates higher efficiency of the chimeric label. Conclusion: CLSSL with morphology labels can increase the ability of feature representation by deep networks. As a non-invasive method, CLSSL-ResNet can distinguish GN from SADC via CT images and may support clinical diagnoses after further validation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)981-999
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of X-Ray Science and Technology
Volume31
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Keywords

  • Lung adenocarcinoma
  • chimeric label
  • classification
  • deep learning
  • granulomatous nodules
  • self-supervised learning

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