Optimizing Deep Learning Models with Custom ReLU for Breast Cancer Histopathology Image Classification

Purpose: The prompt identification of breast cancer is crucial in preventing the considerable damage inflicted by this dangerous form of cancer, which is widely happened across the globe. This study seeks to refine the efficacy of a deep learning-driven approach for the precise diagnosis of breast cancer by employing diverse bespoke Rectified Linear Units (ReLU) to improve the model's performance and reduce inaccuracies within the system. Method: This study focuses on analyzing a deep learning approach utilizing the BreakHis dataset with 7,909 images, incorporating changes to the ReLU activation function across different pre-trained CNN models. It then evaluates performance through measurement such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-Score. Result: Based on our experiment results, it can be shown that the DenseNet201 models with a custom LeakyReLU excel beyond the typical ReLU, achieving the highest accuracy, recall, and F1-Score at 99.21%, 99.21%, and 99.11%, respectively. Simultaneously, ResNet152, utilizing LessNegativeReLU (α=0.05), achieved the highest precision at 99.11%. The VGG11 model exhibited the most notable performance enhancement, with improvements ranging from 1.39% to 1.59%. Novelty: The research is original in optimizing a model for accurate breast cancer diagnosis. The proposed model is superior to the model utilizing the default activation function. This finding indicates that the study significantly enhances performance while effectively minimizing errors, thereby necessitating further exploration into the effectiveness of the customized activation function when applied to other medical imaging modalities.