Study on the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions using a deep learning model based on multimodal images

ABSTRACT Objective: To establish a multimodal model for distinguishing benign and malignant breast lesions. Materials and Methods: Clinical data, mammography, and MRI images (including T2WI, diffusion-weighted images (DWI), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and DCE-MRI images) of 132 benign and breast cancer patients were analyzed retrospectively. The region of interest (ROI) in each image was marked and segmented using MATLAB software. The mammography, T2WI, DWI, ADC, and DCE-MRI models based on the ResNet34 network were trained. Using an integrated learning method, the five models were used as a basic model, and voting methods were used to construct a multimodal model. The dataset was divided into a training set and a prediction set. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the model were calculated. The diagnostic efficacy of each model was analyzed using a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and an area under the curve (AUC). The diagnostic value was determined by the DeLong test with statistically significant differences set at P < 0.05. Results: We evaluated the ability of the model to classify benign and malignant tumors using the test set. The AUC values of the multimodal model, mammography model, T2WI model, DWI model, ADC model and DCE-MRI model were 0.943, 0.645, 0.595, 0.905, 0.900, and 0.865, respectively. The diagnostic ability of the multimodal model was significantly higher compared with that of the mammography and T2WI models. However, compared with the DWI, ADC, and DCE-MRI models, there was no significant difference in the diagnostic ability of these models. Conclusion: Our deep learning model based on multimodal image training has practical value for the diagnosis of benign and malignant breast lesions.