Development of automated diagnostic system for skin cancer: Performance analysis of neural network learning algorithms for classification

Melanoma is the most deathly of all skin cancers but early diagnosis can ensure a high degree of survival. Early diagnosis is one of the greatest challenges due to lack of experience of general practitioners (GPs). In this paper we present a clinical decision support system designed for general practitioners, aimed at saving time and resources in the diagnostic process. Segmentation, pattern recognition, and change detection are the important steps in our approach. This paper also investigates the performance of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) learning algorithms for skin cancer diagnosis. The capabilities of three learning algorithms i.e. Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), Resilient Back propagation (RP), Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) algorithms in differentiating melanoma and benign lesions are studied and their performances are compared. The results show that Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was quick and efficient in figuring out benign lesions with specificity 95.1%, while SCG algorithm gave better results in detecting melanoma at the cost of more number of epochs with sensitivity 92.6%. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland