Abstract PO4-07-03: Machine learning breast cancer risk prediction using sequential past mammograms - a pilot study
Authors: Leong Lester , Xu Mingjie , Huang Weimin , Zhang Erli , Loh Engracia , Teo Sze Yiun , Lim Geok Hoon , Tan Veronique Kiak Mien , Sim Yirong , Strand Fredrik , Tan Ryan 
Published: May 2024

Background and Aim

Some studies have reported the use of mammogram AI deep learning algorithms to accurately predict the risk of future breast cancer development in women. In these studies, random and unrelated mammograms were independently used for training of the AI model. We propose a novel deep learning system using sequential past mammograms instead of random studies and aimed to determine if it can further improve risk prediction in a pilot study.

Methods

Pre-training of the backbone of a Swin-transformer machine learning model was performed by applying region-of-interest lesional masks of benign and malignant on a training set of 1644 mammograms derived from the open-access Curated Breast Imaging Subset of Digital Database for Screening Mammography dataset. To further develop the model, deep learning training and validation were performed on the Cohort of Screen-age Women (CSAW) open-access screening mammogram set which was derived from the long term data of 873 women who developed breast cancer for the first time and 7850 non-cancer women. We then compared the diagnostic accuracy of a model using sequential past mammograms for training against the standard, non-sequential model. For the sequential model, imaging segmentation of the potential cancer site on mammography was performed on all past, pre-cancer mammograms obtained within 60 to 2555 days of cancer diagnosis in the pre-processing stage for breast cancer cases. AI training was then carried out by combining the pre-cancer mammograms belonging to the same woman in a temporal sequence using a transformer encoder. The learning rate started from 1e-6 and decayed 10 times every 10 epochs. For the non-sequential model, we removed the temporal encoder and used random, unrelated mammogram studies for training. Validation was performed on a dataset consisting of 75 pre-cancer mammograms from breast cancer cases and 69 mammograms from non-cancer cases.

Results

Sensitivity, specificity and overall accuracy on the validation set were 77.3% (58/75), 68.1% (47/69) and (105/144) 72.9% respectively for the sequential model compared to 69.3% (52/75), 69.6% (48/69) and 69.4% (100/144) respectively for the non-sequential model.

Conclusion

The study showed that deep learning breast cancer risk prediction can be further improved by using sequential past mammograms instead of random mammograms for AI model training. This can also potentially enhance other AI risk prediction models that employ combined mammogram and traditional breast cancer clinical risk factors. A larger validation study will be useful.

Contact information: email Lester Leong at lester.leong.c.h@singhealth.com.sg

ROC curve for breast cancer risk prediction using AI deep learning training with sequential past mammograms.

Citation Format: Lester Leong, Mingjie Xu, Weimin Huang, Erli Zhang, Engracia Loh, Sze Yiun Teo, Geok Hoon Lim, Veronique Kiak Mien Tan, Yirong Sim, Fredrik Strand, Ryan Tan. Machine learning breast cancer risk prediction using sequential past mammograms - a pilot study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO4-07-03.