Deep learning prediction of axillary lymph node status using ultrasound images.

Publication/Presentation Date

4-1-2022

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the ability of our convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict axillary lymph node metastasis using primary breast cancer ultrasound (US) images.

METHODS: In this IRB-approved study, 338 US images (two orthogonal images) from 169 patients from 1/2014-12/2016 were used. Suspicious lymph nodes were seen on US and patients subsequently underwent core-biopsy. 64 patients had metastatic lymph nodes. A custom CNN was utilized on 248 US images from 124 patients in the training dataset and tested on 90 US images from 45 patients. The CNN was implemented entirely of 3 × 3 convolutional kernels and linear layers. The 9 convolutional kernels consisted of 6 residual layers, totaling 12 convolutional layers. Feature maps were down-sampled using strided convolutions. Dropout with a 0.5 keep probability and L2 normalization was utilized. Training was implemented by using the Adam optimizer and a final SoftMax score threshold of 0.5 from the average of raw logits from each pixel was used for two class classification (metastasis or not).

RESULTS: Our CNN achieved an AUC of 0.72 (SD ± 0.08) in predicting axillary lymph node metastasis from US images in the testing dataset. The model had an accuracy of 72.6% (SD ± 8.4) with a sensitivity and specificity of 65.5% (SD ± 28.6) and 78.9% (SD ± 15.1) respectively. Our algorithm is available to be shared for research use. (https://github.com/stmutasa/MetUS).

CONCLUSION: It's feasible to predict axillary lymph node metastasis from US images using a deep learning technique. This can potentially aid nodal staging in patients with breast cancer.

Volume

143

First Page

105250

Last Page

105250

ISSN

1879-0534

Disciplines

Diagnosis | Medicine and Health Sciences | Other Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment | Radiology

PubMedID

35114444

Department(s)

Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Medical Imaging

Document Type

Article

Share

COinS