Snap Diagnosis: Developing an Artificial Intelligence Algorithm for Penile Cancer Detection from Photographs
Details
Publication Year 2024-11-27,Volume 16,Issue #23,Page 3971
Journal Title
Cancers
Publication Type
Research article
Abstract
Background/Objective: Penile cancer is aggressive and rapidly progressive. Early recognition is paramount for overall survival. However, many men delay presentation due to a lack of awareness and social stigma. This pilot study aims to develop a convolutional neural network (CNN) model to differentiate penile cancer from precancerous and benign penile lesions. Methods: The CNN was developed using 136 penile lesion images sourced from peer-reviewed open access publications. These images included 65 penile squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 44 precancerous lesions, and 27 benign lesions. The dataset was partitioned using a stratified split into training (64%), validation (16%), and test (20%) sets. The model was evaluated using ten trials of 10-fold internal cross-validation to ensure robust performance assessment. Results: When distinguishing between benign penile lesions and penile SCC, the CNN achieved an Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUROC) of 0.94, with a sensitivity of 0.82, specificity of 0.87, positive predictive value of 0.95, and negative predictive value of 0.72. The CNN showed reduced discriminative capability in differentiating precancerous lesions from penile SCC, with an AUROC of 0.74, sensitivity of 0.75, specificity of 0.65, PPV of 0.45, and NPV of 0.88. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the potential of artificial intelligence in identifying penile SCC. Limitations of this study include the small sample size and reliance on photographs from publications. Further refinement and validation of the CNN using real-life data are needed.
Publisher
MDPI
Keywords
artificial intelligence (AI); deep learning (DL); diagnosis; early detection of cancer; health information technology; neural networks (CNN); penile carcinoma in situ (CIS); penile intraepithelial neoplasia; penile neoplasm
Department(s)
Medical Oncology; Surgical Oncology
Open Access at Publisher's Site
https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16233971
Terms of Use/Rights Notice
Refer to copyright notice on published article.


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