TriDermCancerNet: A hybrid deep learning framework for skin cancer classification

ObjectiveSkin cancer diagnosis via automated image analysis remains a challenging task due to poor image contrast, visual similarity among lesion classes, and class imbalance in available datasets. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel Tri Model Dermatology Cancer Neural Network (TriDermCancerNet) for classifying skin cancer from dermoscopic images.MethodsTwo publicly available datasets are used in this work: the International Skin Imaging Collaboration 2018 and 2019 datasets, which contain multiple classes of cancer types. In the proposed model framework, a contrast enhancement technique was applied to improve image quality, followed by data augmentation to balance the datasets. The proposed TriDermCancerNet architecture is designed based on the key challenges of this work, including dataset variability, interclass similarity, and model explainability. The proposed architecture integrates three modules: a 105-layer Inception module, a 186-layer Inverted Bottleneck Residual module, and the Dense-177 module. Each module was integrated into the proposed network in parallel rather than in series. Thereafter, each module was trained, and features were extracted and fused using a depth concatenation approach. During training, several important hyperparameters were selected using Bayesian optimization, and the final model was used for classification in the testing phase.ResultsThe fused TriDermCancerNet achieved 98.6% accuracy, 98.6% sensitivity, 98.6% F1-score, and an area under the curve of 1.0 on the International Skin Imaging Collaboration 2018 dataset and 99.7% accuracy, 99.6% sensitivity, 99.6% F1-score, and an area under the curve of 1.0 on the International Skin Imaging Collaboration 2019 dataset. Statistical significance testing confirmed that the fusion model outperforms each branch (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe proposed hybrid TriDermCancerNet approach enhances the precision and robustness of skin cancer classification frameworks, providing clinicians with a valuable diagnostic aid for early detection.