# Glioblastoma Tumor Segmentation using an Ensemble of Vision Transformers

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.11467 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11467/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Nov 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Swin Transformer: Hierarchical Vision Transformer using Shifted Windows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14030/) (2021)
- [Per-Pixel Classification is Not All You Need for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06278/) (2021)
- [Identifying the Best Machine Learning Algorithms for Brain Tumor Segmentation, Progression Assessment, and Overall Survival Prediction in the BRATS Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.02629/) (2018)
- [3D MRI brain tumor segmentation using autoencoder regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.11654/) (2018)
- [TransBTS: Multimodal Brain Tumor Segmentation Using Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04430/) (2021)
- [Efficient Multi-Scale 3D CNN with Fully Connected CRF for Accurate Brain Lesion Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.05959/) (2016)
- [nnU-Net for Brain Tumor Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.00848/) (2020)
- [Common Limitations of Image Processing Metrics: A Picture Story](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.05642/) (2021)
- [Extending nn-UNet for brain tumor segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.04653/) (2021)
- [Brain Tumor Segmentation using an Ensemble of 3D U-Nets and Overall Survival Prediction using Radiomic Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.01049/) (2018)
- [Uncertainty-driven refinement of tumor-core segmentation using 3D-to-2D networks with label uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.06436/) (2020)
- [A Novel Mask R-CNN Model to Segment Heterogeneous Brain Tumors through Image Subtraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01201/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and deadliest types of brain cancer, with low survival rates compared to other types of cancer. Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans is one of the most effective methods for the diagnosis and treatment of brain cancers such as glioblastoma. Accurate tumor segmentation in MRI images is often required for treatment planning and risk assessment of treatment methods. Here, we propose a novel pipeline, Brain Radiology Aided by Intelligent Neural NETworks (BRAINNET), which leverages MaskFormer, a vision transformer model, and generates robust tumor segmentation maks. We use an ensemble of nine predictions from three models separately trained on each of the three orthogonal 2D slice directions (axial, sagittal, and coronal) of a 3D brain MRI volume. We train and test our models on the publicly available UPenn-GBM dataset, consisting of 3D multi-parametric MRI (mpMRI) scans from 611 subjects. Using Dice coefficient (DC) and 95% Hausdorff distance (HD) for evaluation, our models achieved state-of-the-art results in segmenting all three different tumor regions -- tumor core (DC = 0.894, HD = 2.308), whole tumor (DC = 0.891, HD = 3.552), and enhancing tumor (DC = 0.812, HD = 1.608).
