Systematic Evaluation of Vision Transformers for Automated Cervical Cancer Classification: Optimization, Statistical Validation, and Clinical Interpretability
Manual Pap smear analysis for cervical cancer screening is limited by inter-observer variability, time constraints, and restricted expert availability. Although convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have automated cervical cell classification, they remain limited in modeling long-range spatial dependencies and often lack clinical interpretability. In this study, Vision Transformer (ViT) architectures were systematically optimized to enhance automated cervical cancer screening, which resulted in improved interpretability. The Herlev dataset (917 images: 242 normal, 675 abnormal) was utilized to optimize ViT-Tiny, a lightweight Vision Transformer architecture designed for reduced computational complexity, through a comprehensive evaluation of augmentation strategies, class weighting, and hyperparameters. The optimal configuration achieved 94.9%-95.2% cross-validation accuracy, in which random horizontal flipping and class weighting (0.7 x 1.3) were identified as most effective. Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) analysis confirmed that model attention corresponded to clinically relevant morphological features, which include nuclear regions, cell boundaries, and chromatin texture, which align with cytopathological criteria. These findings indicate that Vision Transformers can deliver accurate and interpretable decision support for cervical cancer screening, which fulfills both clinical performance and transparency requirements essential for medical AI deployment.
Code (0)
등록된 구현이 없습니다.
Tasks
Cancer ClassificationSimilar Papers 제목 키워드 기반
Automated Cervical Os Segmentation for Camera-Guided, Speculum-Free Screening
Cervical cancer is highly preventable, yet persistent barriers to screening limit progress toward elimination goals. Speculum-free devices that integrate imaging and sampling could improve access, particularly in low-res…
Automated Quality Evaluation of Cervical Cytopathology Whole Slide Images Based on Content Analysis
The ThinPrep Cytologic Test (TCT) is the most widely used method for cervical cancer screening, and the sample quality directly impacts the accuracy of the diagnosis. Traditional manual evaluation methods rely on the obs…
Diagnosticobject-detectionObject Detectionwhole slide imagesClassification of the Cervical Vertebrae Maturation (CVM) stages Using the Tripod Network
We present a novel deep learning method for fully automated detection and classification of the Cervical Vertebrae Maturation (CVM) stages. The deep convolutional neural network consists of three parallel networks (TriPo…
Data AugmentationDetection and Classification of (Pre)Cancerous Cells in Pap Smears: An Ensemble Strategy for the RIVA Cervical Cytology Challenge
Automated detection and classification of cervical cells in conventional Pap smear images can strengthen cervical cancer screening at scale by reducing manual workload, improving triage, and increasing consistency across…
Transfer LearningComparing Deep Learning Models for Multi-cell Classification in Liquid-based Cervical Cytology Images
Liquid-based cytology (LBC) is a reliable automated technique for the screening of Papanicolaou (Pap) smear data. It is an effective technique for collecting a majority of the cervical cells and aiding cytopathologists i…
Cell DetectionCell SegmentationGeneral Classification