Considerations for a PAP Smear Image Analysis System with CNN Features

Abstract

It has been shown that for automated PAP-smear image classification, nucleus features can be very informative. Therefore, the primary step for automated screening can be cell-nuclei detection followed by segmentation of nuclei in the resulting single cell PAP-smear images. We propose a patch based approach using CNN for segmentation of nuclei in single cell images. We then pose the question of ion of segmentation for classification using representation learning with CNN, and whether low-level CNN features may be useful for classification. We suggest a CNN-based feature level analysis and a transfer learning based approach for classification using both segmented as well full single cell images. We also propose a decision-tree based approach for classification. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms individually (with low-level CNN features), and simultaneously proving the sufficiency of cell-nuclei detection (rather than accurate segmentation) for classification. Thus, we propose a system for analysis of multi-cell PAP-smear images consisting of a simple nuclei detection algorithm followed by classification using transfer learning.