False Positive Reduction in Lung Computed Tomography Images using Convolutional Neural Networks

Recent studies have shown that lung cancer screening using annual low-dose computed tomography (CT) reduces lung cancer mortality by 20% compared to traditional chest radiography. Therefore, CT lung screening has started to be used widely all across the world. However, analyzing these images is a serious burden for radiologists. In this study, we propose a novel and simple framework that analyzes CT lung screenings using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and reduces false positives. Our framework shows that even non-complex architectures are very powerful to classify 3D nodule data when compared to traditional methods. We also use different fusions in order to show their power and effect on the overall score. 3D CNNs are preferred over 2D CNNs because data are in 3D, and 2D convolutional operations may result in information loss. Mini-batch is used in order to overcome class-imbalance. Proposed framework has been validated according to the LUNA16 challenge evaluation and got score of 0.786, which is the average sensitivity values at seven predefined false positive (FP) points.