Recent Advances in Applying Machine Learning and Deep Learning to Detect Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Lesions

The clinical application of a real-time artificial intelligence (AI) image processing system to diagnose upper gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies remains an experimental research and engineering problem. Understanding these commonly used technical techniques is required to appreciate the scientific quality and novelty of AI studies. Clinicians frequently lack this technical background, and AI experts may be unaware of such clinical relevance and implications in daily practice. As a result, there is a growing need for a multidisciplinary, international assessment of how to conduct high-quality AI research in upper GI malignancy detection. This research will help endoscopists build approaches or models to increase diagnosis accuracy for upper GI malignancies despite variances in experience, education, personnel, and resources, as it offers real-time and retrospective chances to improve upper GI malignancy diagnosis and screening. This comprehensive review sheds light on potential enhancements to computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) systems for GI endoscopy. The survey includes 65 studies on automatic upper GI malignancy diagnosis and evaluation, which are compared by endoscopic modalities, image counts, models, validation methods, and results. The main goal of this research is to assess and compare each AI method’s current stage and potential improvement to boost performance, maturity, and the possibility to open new research areas for the application of a real-time AI image recognition system that diagnoses upper GI malignancies. The findings of this study suggest that Support Vector Machines (SVM) are frequently utilized in gastrointestinal (GI) image processing within the context of machine learning (ML). Moreover, the analysis reveals that CNN-based supervised learning object detection models are widely employed in GI image analysis within the deep learning (DL) context. The results of this study also suggest that RGB is the most commonly used image modality for GI analysis, with color playing a vital role in detecting bleeding locations. Researchers rely on public datasets from 2018–2019 to develop AI systems, but combining them is challenging due to their unique classes. To overcome the problem of insufficient data to train a new DL model, a standardized database is needed to hold different datasets for the development of AI-based GI endoscopy systems.