Early Breast Cancer Detection Based on Deep Learning: An Ensemble Approach Applied to Mammograms

Background: Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women, making early detection through mammography crucial for improving survival rates. However, human interpretation of mammograms is often prone to diagnostic errors. This study addresses the challenge of improving the accuracy of breast cancer detection by leveraging advanced machine learning techniques. Methods: We propose an extended ensemble deep learning model that integrates three state-of-the-art convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures: VGG16, DenseNet121, and InceptionV3. The model utilizes multi-scale feature extraction to enhance the detection of both benign and malignant masses in mammograms. This ensemble approach is evaluated on two benchmark datasets: INbreast and CBIS-DDSM. Results: The proposed ensemble model achieved significant performance improvements. On the INbreast dataset, the ensemble model attained an accuracy of 90.1%, recall of 88.3%, and an F1-score of 89.1%. For the CBIS-DDSM dataset, the model reached 89.5% accuracy and 90.2% specificity. The ensemble method outperformed each individual CNN model, reducing both false positives and false negatives, thereby providing more reliable diagnostic results. Conclusions: The ensemble deep learning model demonstrated strong potential as a decision support tool for radiologists, offering more accurate and earlier detection of breast cancer. By leveraging the complementary strengths of multiple CNN architectures, this approach can improve clinical decision making and enhance the accessibility of high-quality breast cancer screening.