ConvNext Mixer‐Based Encoder Decoder Method for Nuclei Segmentation in Histopathology Images

Abstract

Histopathology, vital in diagnosing medical conditions, especially in cancer research, relies on analyzing histopathology images (HIs). Nuclei segmentation, a key task, involves precisely identifying cell nuclei boundaries. Manual segmentation by pathologists is time‐consuming, prompting the need for robust automated methods. Challenges in segmentation arise from HI complexities, necessitating advanced techniques. Recent advancements in deep learning, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), have transformed nuclei segmentation. This study emphasizes feature extraction, introducing the ConvNext Mixer‐based Encoder‐Decoder (CNM‐ED) model. Unlike traditional CNN based models, the proposed CNM‐ED model enables the extraction of spatial and long context features to address the inherent complexities of histopathology images. This method leverages a multi‐path strategy using a traditional CNN architecture as well as different paths focused on obtaining customized long context features using the ConvNext Mixer block structure that combines ConvMixer and ConvNext blocks. The fusion of these diverse features in the final segmentation output enables improved accuracy and performance, surpassing existing state‐of‐the‐art segmentation models. Moreover, our multi‐level feature extraction strategy is more effective than models using self‐attention mechanisms such as SwinUnet and TransUnet, which have been frequently used in recent years. Experimental studies were conducted using five different datasets (TNBC, MoNuSeg, CoNSeP, CPM17, and CryoNuSeg) to analyze the performance of the proposed CNM‐ED model. Comparisons were made with various CNN based models in the literature using evaluation metrics such as accuracy, AJI, macro F1 score, macro intersection over union, macro precision, and macro recall. It was observed that the proposed CNM‐ED model achieved highly successful results across all metrics. Through comparisons with state‐art‐of models from the literature, the proposed CNM‐ED model stands out as a promising advancement in nuclei segmentation, addressing the intricacies of histopathological images. The model demonstrates enhanced diagnostic capabilities and holds the potential for significant progress in medical research.