Class-aware multi-level attention learning for semi-supervised breast cancer diagnosis under imbalanced label distribution.

Abstract

Breast cancer affects a significant number of patients worldwide, and early diagnosis is critical for improving cure rates and prognosis. Deep learning-based breast cancer classification algorithms have substantially alleviated the burden on medical personnel. However, existing breast cancer diagnosis models face notable limitations which are challenging to obtain in clinical settings, such as reliance on a large volume of labeled samples, an inability to comprehensively extract features from breast cancer images, and susceptibility to overfitting on account of imbalanced class distribution. Therefore, we propose the class-aware multi-level attention learning model focused on semi-supervised breast cancer diagnosis to effectively reduce the dependency on extensive data annotation. Additionally, we develop the multi-level fusion attention learning module, which integrates multiple mutual attention components across different layers, allowing the model to precisely identify critical regions for lesion categorization. Finally, we design the class-aware adaptive pseudo-labeling module which adaptively predicts category distribution in unlabeled data, and directs the model to focus on underrepresented categories, ensuring a balanced learning process. Experimental results on the BACH dataset demonstrate that our proposed model achieves an accuracy of 86.7% with only 40% labeled microscopic data, showcasing its outstanding contribution to semi-supervised breast cancer diagnosis.