Deep learning outperformed 11 pathologists in the classification of histopathological melanoma images.

Journal: European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990)
Published Date: Jul 18, 2019

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of most cancers is made by a board-certified pathologist based on a tissue biopsy under the microscope. Recent research reveals a high discordance between individual pathologists. For melanoma, the literature reports on 25-26% of discordance for classifying a benign nevus versus malignant melanoma. A recent study indicated the potential of deep learning to lower these discordances. However, the performance of deep learning in classifying histopathologic melanoma images was never compared directly to human experts. The aim of this study is to perform such a first direct comparison.

Authors

  • Achim Hekler
    National Center for Tumor Diseases, Department of Translational Oncology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Jochen S Utikal
    Department of Dermatology, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany; Skin Cancer Unit, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Alexander H Enk
    Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Wiebke Solass
    Institute of Pathology and Neuropathology, Eberhard-Karls-University Tuebingen and National Center for Pleura and Peritoneum, University of Tuebingen, Germany.
  • Max Schmitt
    National Center for Tumor Diseases, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Joachim Klode
    Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
  • Dirk Schadendorf
    Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany.
  • Wiebke Sondermann
    Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
  • Cindy Franklin
    Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
  • Felix Bestvater
    Core Facility Unit Light Microscopy, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Michael J Flaig
    Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany.
  • Dieter Krahl
    Private Laboratory of Dermatohistopathology, Mönchhofstraße 52, 69120 Heidelberg.
  • Christof von Kalle
    National Center for Tumor Diseases, Department of Translational Oncology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Stefan Fröhling
    National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 460, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
  • Titus J Brinker
    National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.

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