Leveraging Ensembles of Pre-trained CNNs for Improved Lung Cancer Detection and Classification

Abstract

Lung cancer is a serious global health concern, highlighting the importance of early identification to improve patient survival rates. We explore the potential of deep learning(DL) models to improve lung cancer diagnosis through detection and classification models. The performance of pre-trained ResNet50, VGG19, and AlexNet models is evaluated on an augmented lung cancer image dataset to determine their suitability for lung cancer classification. The fine-tuned models are evaluated for their ability to identify and classify lung cancer, achieving high accuracy of 92.88%, 93.06%, and 95.23%. While promising, this approach has limitations. The efficacy of DL models is significantly influenced by both the quality and volume of the training data. Additionally, the ”black box” nature of DL models can make it challenging to understand their decision-making process. However, the results of this study suggest that DL ensembles hold significant potential for lung cancer diagnosis. Further research is necessary to address limitations and explore interpretability techniques for wider clinical acceptance.