Automatic Segmentation of Lung Nodules in CT Images Using Deep Learning

Lung cancer is one of the leading death causes by cancer worldwide. Early diagnosis increases the patient's cure chances. This diagnosis is made by computed tomography, an imaging exam that provides accurate information about the nodule. However, it depends on many external factors, from equipment quality to the fatigue of expert who analyzes. Image processing techniques might be great allies in early nodule detection, once it has no human limitations. This study presents an evaluation of two deep learning approaches, 3D U-Net and 3D V-Net, with different configurations of architectures, parameters, and data augmentation distribution applied to pulmonary nodules segmentation. The best results obtained mean an IoU of 0.74 and 0.99 for 3D U-Net and 3D V-Net, respectively. The second network obtained the best results because it is a much more robust network than the 3D U-Net, since it is a network developed for volumetric data processing.