Classification of Skin Cancer Images Using Convolutional Neural Network with ResNet50 Pre-trained Model

The skin, an astonishingly expansive organ within the human body, plays a pivotal role in safeguarding us against the environment's harsh elements. It acts as a formidable barrier, shielding our delicate internal systems from the scorching heat of the sun and the harmful effects of relentless exposure to light. Nevertheless, it is not impervious to damage, especially when subjected to excessive sunlight and the potentially hazardous ultraviolet (UV) radiation that accompanies it. Prolonged UV exposure can wreak havoc on our skin cells, potentially setting the stage for the development of skin cancer. This condition demands prompt and accurate diagnosis for effective treatment. To address the pressing need for swift and precise skin cancer diagnosis, cutting-edge technology has come to the fore in the form of deep learning systems. These sophisticated systems have been meticulously designed and trained to classify skin lesions autonomously with remarkable accuracy. The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture is a formidable choice for handling image classification tasks among the array of deep learning techniques. In a recent breakthrough study, a CNN-based model was meticulously constructed to explicitly classify skin lesions, leveraging the power of a pre-trained ResNet50 architectural model to augment its capabilities. This groundbreaking ResNet50 architecture was meticulously trained to classify seven distinct skin lesions, surpassing the performance of its predecessor, MobileNet. The results achieved in this endeavor are nothing short of impressive. The overall accuracy of the ResNet50 model stands at a commendable 87.42% when tasked with classifying the seven diverse classes within the dataset. Delving further into its proficiency, we find that the Top2 and Top3 accuracy rates soar to an astounding 95.52% and 97.86%, respectively, illustrating the model's exceptional precision and reliability.