MFEM-CIN: A Lightweight Architecture Combining CNN and Transformer for the Classification of Pre-Cancerous Lesions of the Cervix

Goal: Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide, ranking among the top four. Unfortunately, it is also the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women, particularly in developing countries where incidence and mortality rates are higher compared to developed nations. Colposcopy can aid in the early detection of cervical lesions, but its effectiveness is limited in areas with limited medical resources and a lack of specialized physicians. Consequently, many cases are diagnosed at later stages, putting patients at significant risk. Methods: This paper proposes an automated colposcopic image analysis framework to address these challenges. The framework aims to reduce the labor costs associated with cervical precancer screening in undeserved regions and assist doctors in diagnosing patients. The core of the framework is the MFEM-CIN hybrid model, which combines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Transformer to aggregate the correlation between local and global features. This combined analysis of local and global information is scientifically useful in clinical diagnosis. In the model, MSFE and MSFF are utilized to extract and fuse multi-scale semantics. This preserves important shallow feature information and allows it to interact with the deep feature, enriching the semantics to some extent. Conclusions: The experimental results demonstrate an accuracy rate of 89.2% in identifying cervical intraepithelial neoplasia while maintaining a lightweight model. This performance exceeds the average accuracy achieved by professional physicians, indicating promising potential for practical application. Utilizing automated colposcopic image analysis and the MFEM-CIN model, this research offers a practical solution to reduce the burden on healthcare providers and improve the efficiency and accuracy of cervical cancer diagnosis in resource-constrained areas.