Explainable Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging: A Case Study on Enhancing Lung Cancer Detection through CT Images

Abstract

This study tackles the pressing challenge of lung cancer detection, the foremost cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, hindered by late detection and diagnostic limitations. Aiming to improve early detection rates and diagnostic reliability, we propose an approach integrating Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) with Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques, specifically focusing on the Residual Network (ResNet) architecture and Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM). Utilizing a dataset of 1,000 CT scans, categorized into normal, non-cancerous, and three types of lung cancer images, we adapted the ResNet50 model through transfer learning and fine-tuning for enhanced specificity in lung cancer subtype detection. Our methodology demonstrated the modified ResNet50 model's effectiveness, significantly outperforming the original architecture in accuracy (91.11%), precision (91.66%), sensitivity (91.11%), specificity (96.63%), and F1-score (91.10%). The inclusion of Grad-CAM provided insightful visual explanations for the model's predictions, fostering transparency and trust in computer-assisted diagnostics. The study highlights the potential of combining DCNN with XAI to advance lung cancer detection, suggesting future research should expand dataset diversity and explore multimodal data integration for broader applicability and improved diagnostic capabilities.