Skin Lesion Detection Algorithms in Whole Body Images

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-10, Vol.21 (19), p.6639
• Main Authors: Strzelecki, Michał H., Strąkowska, Maria, Kozłowski, Michał, Urbańczyk, Tomasz, Wielowieyska-Szybińska, Dorota, Kociołek, Marcin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: algorithm fusion; Algorithms; Brightness distribution; Classification; Deep learning; Digital cameras; Lesions; Melanoma; Neural networks; Skin cancer; skin lesion detection; Smartphones; whole body system
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s21196639

Melanoma is one of the most lethal and rapidly growing cancers, causing many deaths each year. This cancer can be treated effectively if it is detected quickly. For this reason, many algorithms and systems have been developed to support automatic or semiautomatic detection of neoplastic skin lesions based on the analysis of optical images of individual moles. Recently, full-body systems have gained attention because they enable the analysis of the patient’s entire body based on a set of photos. This paper presents a prototype of such a system, focusing mainly on assessing the effectiveness of algorithms developed for the detection and segmentation of lesions. Three detection algorithms (and their fusion) were analyzed, one implementing deep learning methods and two classic approaches, using local brightness distribution and a correlation method. For fusion of algorithms, detection sensitivity = 0.95 and precision = 0.94 were obtained. Moreover, the values of the selected geometric parameters of segmented lesions were calculated and compared for all algorithms. The obtained results showed a high accuracy of the evaluated parameters (error of area estimation