Mammo-Clustering: Context Clustering based Multi-view Tri Level Information Fusion for Lesion Location and Classification in Mammography

Abstract

Breast cancer is a significant global health issue, and the diagnosis of breast cancer through imaging remains challenging. Mammography images are characterized by extremely high resolution, while lesions often occupy only a small portion of the image. Down-sampling in neural networks can easily lead to the loss of microcalcifications or subtle structures. To tackle these challenges, we propose a Context Clustering based triple information fusion framework. First, in comparison to CNNs or transformers, we observe that Context clustering methods are (1) more computationally efficient and (2) better at associating structural or pathological features. This makes them particularly well-suited for mammography in clinical settings. Next, we propose a triple information fusion mechanism that integrates global, feature-based local, and patch-based local information. The proposed approach is rigorously evaluated on two public datasets, Vindr-Mammo and CBIS-DDSM, using five independent data splits to ensure statistical robustness. Our method achieves an AUC of 0.828 \pm 0.020 on Vindr-Mammo and 0.805 \pm 0.020 on CBIS-DDSM, outperforming the second best method by 3.5% and 2.5%, respectively. These improvements are statistically significant (p<0.05), highlighting the advantages of the Context Clustering Network with triple information fusion. Overall, our Context Clustering framework demonstrates strong potential as a scalable and cost-effective solution for large-scale mammography screening, enabling more efficient and accurate breast cancer detection. Access to our method is available at https://github.com/Sohyu1/Mammo-Clustering.