# Diagnosis of Skin Cancer Using VGG16 and VGG19 Based Transfer Learning Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01160 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01160/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 31 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Sparsity in Deep Learning: Pruning and growth for efficient inference and training in neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.00554/) (2021)
- [A Patient-Centric Dataset of Images and Metadata for Identifying Melanomas Using Clinical Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.07360/) (2020)
- [Towards Dropout Training for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.00242/) (2015)
- [Deep Learning Based Framework for Iranian License Plate Detection and Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.06825/) (2022)
- [Drone Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.01435/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Advanced Deep Learning and Large Language Models: Comprehensive Insights for Cancer Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13186/) (2025)
- [Skin Cancer Classification: Hybrid CNN-Transformer Models with KAN-Based Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12484/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Today, skin cancer is considered as one of the most dangerous and common cancers in the world which demands special attention. Skin cancer may be developed in different types; including melanoma, actinic keratosis, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma. Among them, melanoma is more unpredictable. Melanoma cancer can be diagnosed at early stages increasing the possibility of disease treatment. Automatic classification of skin lesions is a challenging task due to diverse forms and grades of the disease, demanding the requirement of novel methods implementation. Deep convolution neural networks (CNN) have shown an excellent potential for data and image classification. In this article, we inspect skin lesion classification problem using CNN techniques. Remarkably, we present that prominent classification accuracy of lesion detection can be obtained by proper designing and applying of transfer learning framework on pre-trained neural networks, without any requirement for data enlargement procedures i.e. merging VGG16 and VGG19 architectures pre-trained by a generic dataset with modified AlexNet network, and then, fine-tuned by a subject-specific dataset containing dermatology images. The convolution neural network was trained using 2541 images and, in particular, dropout was used to prevent the network from overfitting. Finally, the validity of the model was checked by applying the K-fold cross validation method. The proposed model increased classification accuracy by 3% (from 94.2% to 98.18%) in comparison with other methods.