Multitask Deep Learning-Based Whole-Process System for Automatic Diagnosis of Breast Lesions and Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis Discrimination from Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced-MRI: A Multicenter Study.

Background: Accurate diagnosis of breast lesions and discrimination of axillary lymph node (ALN) metastases largely depend on radiologist experience.

Purpose: To develop a deep learning-based whole-process system (DLWPS) for segmentation and diagnosis of breast lesions and discrimination of ALN metastasis.

Study Type: Retrospective.

Population: 1760 breast patients, who were divided into training and validation sets (1110 patients), internal (476 patients), and external (174 patients) test sets.

Field Strength/sequence: 3.0T/dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI sequence.

Assessment: DLWPS was developed using segmentation and classification models. The DLWPS-based segmentation model was developed by the U-Net framework, which combined the attention module and the edge feature extraction module. The average score of the output scores of three networks was used as the result of the DLWPS-based classification model. Moreover, the radiologists' diagnosis without and with the DLWPS-assistance was explored. To reveal the underlying biological basis of DLWPS, genetic analysis was performed based on RNA-sequencing data.

Statistical Tests: Dice similarity coefficient (DI), area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and kappa value.

Results: The segmentation model reached a DI of 0.828 and 0.813 in the internal and external test sets, respectively. Within the breast lesions diagnosis, the DLWPS achieved AUCs of 0.973 in internal test set and 0.936 in external test set. For ALN metastasis discrimination, the DLWPS achieved AUCs of 0.927 in internal test set and 0.917 in external test set. The agreement of radiologists improved with the DLWPS-assistance from 0.547 to 0.794, and from 0.848 to 0.892 in breast lesions diagnosis and ALN metastasis discrimination, respectively. Additionally, 10 breast cancers with ALN metastasis were associated with pathways of aerobic electron transport chain and cytoplasmic translation.

Data Conclusion: The performance of DLWPS indicates that it can promote radiologists in the judgment of breast lesions and ALN metastasis and nonmetastasis.

Level Of Evidence: 4 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 3.