Development and multicenter validation of deep convolutional neural network-based detection of colorectal cancer on abdominal CT.

This study aims to develop computer-aided detection (CAD) for colorectal cancer (CRC) using abdominal CT based on a deep convolutional neural network. This retrospective study included consecutive patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma who underwent abdominal CT before CRC resection surgery (training set = 379, test set = 103). We customized the 3D U-Net of nnU-Net (CUNET) for CRC detection, which was trained with fivefold cross-validation using annotated CT images. CUNET was validated using datasets covering various clinical situations and institutions: an internal test set (n = 103), internal patients with CRC first determined by CT (n = 54) and asymptomatic CRC (n = 51), and an external validation set from two institutions (n = 60). During each validation, data from the healthy population were added (internal = 60; external = 130). CUNET was compared with other deep CNNs: residual U-Net and EfficientDet. The CAD performances were evaluated using per-CRC sensitivity (true positive/all CRCs), free-response receiver operating characteristic (FROC), and jackknife alternative FROC (JAFROC) curves. CUNET showed a higher maximum per-CRC sensitivity than residual U-Net and EfficientDet (internal test set 91.3% vs. 61.2%, and 64.1%). The per-CRC sensitivity of CUNET at false-positive rates of 3.0 was as follows: internal CRC determined by CT, 89.3%; internal asymptomatic CRC, 87.3%; and external validation, 89.6%. CUNET detected 69.2% (9/13) of CRCs missed by radiologists and 89.7% (252/281) of CRCs from all validation sets. CUNET can detect CRC on abdominal CT in patients with various clinical situations and from external institutions. • Customized 3D U-Net of nnU-Net (CUNET) can be applied to the opportunistic detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) in abdominal CT, helping radiologists detect unexpected CRC. • CUNET showed the best performance at false-positive rates ≥ 3.0, and 30.1% of false-positives were in the colorectum. CUNET detected 69.2% (9/13) of CRCs missed by radiologists and 87.3% (48/55) of asymptomatic CRCs. • CUNET detected CRCs in multiple validation sets composed of varying clinical situations and from different institutions, and CUNET detected 89.7% (252/281) of CRCs from all validation sets. © 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Society of Radiology.

Citation

Yeo Eun Han, Yongwon Cho, Beom Jin Park, Min Ju Kim, Ki Choon Sim, Deuk Jae Sung, Na Yeon Han, Jongmee Lee, Yang Shin Park, Suk Keu Yeom, Jin Kim, Hyonggin An, Kyuhyup Oh. Development and multicenter validation of deep convolutional neural network-based detection of colorectal cancer on abdominal CT. European radiology. 2024 Feb 01

PMID: 38300293

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