Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Tiny Deep Learning and Tiny Machine Learning in Lung Cancer Identification

Lung cancer is the most common dangerous disease that, if treated late, can lead to death. It is more likely to be treated if successfully discovered at an early stage before it worsens. Distinguishing the size, shape, and location of lymphatic nodes can identify the spread of the disease around these nodes. Thus, identifying lung cancer at the early stage is remarkably helpful for doctors. Lung cancer can be diagnosed successfully by expert doctors; however, their limited experience may lead to misdiagnosis and cause medical issues in patients. In the line of computer-assisted systems, many methods and strategies can be used to predict the cancer malignancy level that plays a significant role to provide precise abnormality detection. In this paper, the use of modern learning machine-based approaches was explored. More than 70 state-of-the-art articles (from 2019 to 2024) were extensively explored to highlight the different machine learning and deep learning (DL) techniques of different models used for the detection, classification, and prediction of cancerous lung tumors. The efficient model of Tiny DL must be built to assist physicians who are working in rural medical centers for swift and rapid diagnosis of lung cancer. The combination of lightweight Convolutional Neural Networks and limited resources could produce a portable model with low computational cost that has the ability to substitute the skill and experience of doctors needed in urgent cases.